Aitzaz Ahsan at India Pakistan Peace Conference 2010

An India Pakistan Peace Conference was held in New Delhi in January, in which (non-official) eminent intellectuals and peace activists, as well as 'ordinary citizens' from both sides renewed their personal friendships, exchanged views, and attempted to change the overall atmosphere of hostility resulting from the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai into one more conducive to dialogue, and eventually friendship and peace.

I think some of the participants might have been privy to the back-channel discussions between the two countries, and the conference was organized partly with the intention of preparing public and media opinion in both countries for a resumption of the official level dialogue.

Aitzaz Ahsan, the leader of the lawyers' movement, and one of Pakistan's leading public intellectuals, recited his poetry on the occasion. Here he recites his Poem of Peace:





Mohammad Ali Jinnah, ne dekhaa tha jo sapna sabka

Saari duniya par ab hogaa saaya: ek, aur ek hi Rab ka.

Woh Rab saancha, woh Rab saccha; Har mazhab, har dharam ka Rab hai.

Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Isaai; Har insaan pe karam ka Rab hai.

Saancha maaliq, saancha khaaliq; Uske dar par sab haasil hai.

Adam tashaddut rasta uska; Aman hamara mustaqbil hai.

Jaao, jaao, sab se keh do; Kadam hamare ruk nahin sakte.

Jaao, jaao, sab se keh do; Apne sar ab jhuk nahin sakte.

Zaalim aur ghaasib ki dushman; jantaa ham se aaid karegi,

Mazloomon ki aakhir woh hi jari jidd-o-jehad rahegi.

Rasta thodaa hi baaqi hai; Dekho, dekho woh manzil hai.

Zaalim dar ke bhaag rahaa hai; Jeet hamaara mustaqbil hai.