Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD)

At a time when the governments of India and Pakistan were intensifying mutual confrontation, political leaders were openly talking about the inevitability of a conflict and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, and the sub-continent appeared to be on the verge of war. In a climate of hysteria, forces of bigotry and religious intolerance threatened the fabric of civil society of the sub-continent. In such a bellicose atmosphere democratic rights of the people were increasingly ignored. There was, therefore, an urgent need for saner voices to prevail.

A group of concerned citizens of India and Pakistan, from different walks of life, had been engaged for some time in a process of initiating a people-to-people dialogue on the critical issues of Peace and Democracy.

Accordingly a group of 24 persons from the two countries met in Lahore on September 2, 1994 and agreed to constitute a committee for setting up a Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy. In pursuance of this decision a meeting was held on November 25-26, 1994 in Delhi attended by 19 persons both from Pakistan and India in which the "Aims and Objectives" of the Forum were defined.

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