LAHORE: A delegation of senior Indian Parliamentarians visiting Pakistan for the Pakistan-India Parliamentarians Dialogue-V was honoured at a reception tendered by South Asian Federation of Exchanges (SAFE).
The reception provided an opportunity for the Indian parliamentary delegation to interact with senior professionals from Pakistan’s financial sector and discuss matters for furthering cooperation between the two countries’ financial and business communities.
The event proved to be a great success by bringing together senior media representatives, regional consulate heads, high-profile professionals from business fraternity, Pakistani members of parliament and officials from government sector and making possible informal discussions with the Indian Parliamentarians on a variety of topics concerning both the countries.
Lahore Stock Exchange MD/CEO and SAFE Secretary General Aftab Ahmed Ch, being the host of the reception, welcomed the guests and expressed great pleasure for having the honour of hosting the august company. He emphasised the need for increase in people-to-people contact between India and Pakistan. He said, “We have great expectations from these dialogue sessions between the parliamentarians of the two countries to strengthen better relations.”
The head of Indian delegation Mani Shankar Aiyar thanked Aftab Ahmed Ch and SAFE for the hospitality and efforts to further the agenda of getting acquainted with Pakistan’s financial sector representatives. He said, “We are committed to the cause of opening the avenues of trade and commerce between the two countries and to resolve issues of mistrust on both sides.”
Mani Shankar commended the role of SAFE in bringing together the financial markets of South Asia at one platform and its untiring efforts in promoting and propagating financial integration within the region to unleash the hitherto untapped potential of South Asia. He also stressed that in order to realise the dream of regional harmonisation, Pakistan & India must play the most critical role of resolving their political differences.
