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New Delhi:
National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza will be the first
Pakistani leader to make a speech in Indian parliament's Central
Hall when a four-day conference of lawmakers from eight SAARC
member countries opens Saturday evening.
Mirza, the first woman speaker in the Muslim world, is leading the
six-member Pakistani contingent at the 5th Summit Conference of
Association of SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians that will be
thrown open by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
She would be the first Pakistani leader to speak in the historic
Central Hall that has earlier hosted speeches of world leaders,
including US President Barack Obama last year. Obama and other
world leaders, however, have addressed joint sessions of the
Indian MPs from both upper and lower houses.
"As far as I can recall, no Pakistani leader, prime minister or
president has ever spoken from the Central Hall of parliament.
Also, the Central Hall is rarely used for international
conferences. Such conferences usually take place in Vigyan Bhavan.
This makes Mirza the first Pakistani leader to speak from the
historic hall," author and veteran journalist S.P.K. Gupta, who
has been covering Indian parliament since 1963, told IANS.
The Pakistani contingent consists of three more women MPs --
Tasneem Siddiqui, Shahnaz Ali and Kashmala Tariq.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will make the inaugural address at
the four-day conference. It would be followed by the addresses of
the speakers of the national parliaments of the other SAARC
countries -- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a statement from the Lok Sabha Secretariat
said.
Afghanistan, which became the eighth member of the SAARC in 2007,
is making a debut at the summit.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar will deliver the welcome address in
her capacity as the president of the conference.
The themes chosen for discussions at the conference include
'Consolidating Democracy, Strengthening trust between Parliament
and People, and Sustainable Development in SAARC Countries - The
Way Forward'.
Nearly 130 delegates, observers, accompanying people from the
eight SAARC countries are attending the conference to be held at
Hotel Taj Mahal, New Delhi.
Viewed as a part of Track-II diplomatic initiative between the two
countries, the Pakistani parliamentarians are likely to meet
members of the Indian civil society. The visit comes days before
Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers meet in New Delhi later
this month.
The Association of SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians was
launched in 1992 with an objective of promoting people-to-people
contacts and interaction among the parliaments and
parliamentarians to deepen the roots of parliamentary democracy in
the South Asia region.
This is for the second time that the conference is being hosted by
India.
Earlier, the conferences were held in New Delhi, Islamabad, Dhaka
and Colombo during the years 1995, 1997, 1999, and 2006,
respectively.
Cultural programmes showcasing the cultural heritage of India will
be organised July 9 and 10 in honour of the delegates who will
also be taken on a guided tour of the Parliament House. They will
visit Jaipur and Ajmer July 11.
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