Its members are basically activists who found their agendas overtaken by the nuclear issue following the May 1998 tests. Delegates to the conference, besides NGO representatives, included economists, film-makers, journalists, lawyers, doctors, trade unionists, women's rights activists, scholars, retired army personnel, students and artists. There is a symbolic significance in choosing Karachi as the venue, said conference convener B M Kutty, pointing out that this city has been in the news as a violence-prone area. This conference sends out the message that this city and its people ardently desire peace, not only for themselves, but also for all those who live in this country and in the region. Peace in this city is essential to the emergence of a meaningful peace movement in Pakistan.
Nuclear weapons threaten that continuation as nothing else has ever done.
He was one of the overseas delegates who flew to Karachi especially for the conference. So what's happened at this conference could also influence what happens at policy or state level. Perhaps it was this spectre that galvanised the spirit of volunteerism so evident at the conference, to attend which most Pakistani and overseas participants had paid for their own travel - with the organisers only taking care of room and board in addition to the registration fee of PKR200. Hundreds of participants signed the petition he circulated, along with donating at least one rupee each to contribute towards the march, totalling over R1,000 by the time the conference ended. People are the best guarantee for peace, commented Nirmala Deshpande in her address to the opening plenary, attended by some 800 people.