Indo-pak.org - Organization encouraging India and Pakistan relations
Title
India-Pakistan Friendship Club (IPFC)
About IPFC
We are the India Pakistan Friendship Club (IPFC). We are a group of people committed to the cause of India Pakistan Friendship, an ever growing community of netizens, with real life extension and influence. We are present on the web through our website www.indo-pak.org and a set of communities/groups on the social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook. The largest of these communities constitutes more than 100,000 members. Our active core team comprises more than 150 IPFCians (as we call each other).
We are determined to make a difference in India-Pakistan relations, because we believe that the chemistry of relations between India and Pakistan shall be one of the important factors that will shape the lives of more than a billion people of the subcontinent in the 21st century. It is the common people who stand to bear the greatest brunt of any further mishaps that may occur on this front. Hence, we believe that this important issue can be tackled best, only when the people themselves are a part of this effort to ensure a bright future for themselves, and their coming generations. We, the IPFC, are a forum for achieving people to people contact and friendship on a revolutionary scale, thus giving ourselves, the citizens, the power to make a difference to our future.
Although at a nascent stage, we are making significant strides towards our goal. We have active regional chapters in most corners of the subcontinent, as well as throughout the world, who meet whenever necessary. There could be no doubt that the internet is a major instrument of communication today, and its importance shall only grow exponentially as time passes. IPFC is the most active group on internet spreading the concept of friendship and taking it to the doorsteps of millions of netizens of the subcontinent, actively recruiting almost a thousand new people every day. We are also making preparations for starting a subcontinent wide NGO, that would act as an instrument to directly passing on our concept of friendship, as well as its benefits to the common people, thus actively making them a part of this cause. We are also going to launch our worldwide online radio very soon, where features, programs, commentaries, news and other content shall be broadcast with an aim of promoting the idea of friendship through people to people contact. . As a part of our efforts, we launched the first issue of the IPFC Magazine on New Year with the beginning of 2008. A copy of it can be accessed online at http://www.indo-pak.org/magazine or downloaded in PDF format at http://www.indo-pak.org/IPFC-Magazine.pdf . The IPFC aims to make its next issue available widely on the internet, as well as in all major libraries throughout the subcontinent and elsewhere.
Our Vision
Sixty plus years of Indo-Pak talks are little red with heaps of shattered talks, resolves and intentions. Nehru-Liaquat talks in fifties, Shastri-Ayub talks in sixties, Indira-Bhutto talks in seventies, Rajiv-Benazir talks in eighties, Vajpayee-Nawaz talks in nineties; Vajpayee-Musharraf in early two thousand all broken, littering the storehouse of fledgling Indo-Pakistani history.
Everyone on both sides of the India-Pakistan border wants a peaceful life. Kargil or no Kargil, everyone in both countries hankers to sit down and listen to Lata Mangeshkar or Ghulam Ali.
We celebrated the 59th anniversary of Independence of India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan have deep bonds of common culture and civilization and a shared history that goes back several years. Actions of the governments of India and Pakistan such as the development of nuclear weapons threaten the peaceful co-existence of not only the two countries but of the entire region of South Asia. I believe that the current hostile climate can only undermine the national security of the two countries and that the only way to ensure peace and prosperity in the region is to garner greater economic and cultural ties across borders.
We the concerned citizens should make an earnest appeal to the Governments of India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, stop hostilities, on the Kashmir front, and save our valuable resources for the betterment of the people, specially the poor and the needy of both countries. Both the countries cannot afford such adventures. Millions in both countries want bread not bombs. Want education and not guns. We are not a poor sub-continent but we have poor people because we are wasting resources firing guns at each other. And for this you, me and all the people of this sub-continent are responsible.
It’s time to act. To appeal to the men and women of both the countries to build up a strong peace initiative to bring moral pressure on their respective Governments. Human life on both sides is precious; any killing is a loss to both our countries. Every drop of blood counts. Let us follow the path of sanity and develop good neighbourly relations in order to solve our problems. A war, after all, has never produced any winners.
Things are getting better. But will this able to make a positive crack for peace? Will this meet harvest anything substantial to the two countries and the troubled state of Jammu & Kashmir? Will the extremists in both countries give peace a chance? Can we lay the old ghost to rest? Or will we see history repeating itself, a few moments of euphoria followed by a long spell of hostility?
We, therefore should call upon the two governments to:
1. Work toward joint solutions of shared problems of economic and human development.
2. Seek greater cooperation in trade and promote cultural and intellectual exchange between the two countries. Especially youth exchange programs.
3. Seek a peaceful resolution to their dispute over Kashmir with genuine representation and active participation from the diverse people of Kashmir.
4. Respect the Human Rights of the Kashmiris.
I have a strong belief that amidst of heavy smoke and gloom the sun is bound to rise in the valley once more, the streets are going to be filled with laughter and the shikaras on the Dal will float on water and not blood. Let us give peace a chance for once and always.
LET’S START BEING PART OF THE SOLUTION… PEACE!
