LAHORE: Experience sharing and dialogue on governance and democracy should not be held hostage to political and diplomatic relations between Pakistan and India, experts and public representatives from India and Pakistan said in a joint statement issued at the conclusion of a two-day dialogue on Wednesday.

The dialogue, organised by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, mainly focused on agriculture, business and investment and tourism and which, the participants said had been much more useful than anticipated.

Mangi Lal Garasiya and Kuljit Singh Nagra, Congress members of Rajasthan and (east) Punjab assemblies, represented India. None of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party representative attended the event despite invitation.

Indian experts included Prof Jagrup Singh Sekhon, Prof Hemant Kumar Shah and Prof Sanjay Lodha.

MNAs Rana Afzal, Nafeesa Khattak and Shehryar Afridi and MPAs fromPunjab and Khyber Palchtunkhwa assemblies were delegates whereas Asif Khan, Dr Hafiz A Pash and Aftabur Rehman Rana were experts from Pakistan.

The participants said experience sharing may be extended between more provinces of both countries.

They urged the two countries to cooperate on good practices for improving governance and democracy focusing better lives of their respective citizens.

The two sides agreed that lawmakers and civil society from across the borders jointly lobby for comprehensive, growth-oriented agriculture reforms, create a joint forum of farmers to facilitate mutual learning and a joint Kissan festival at bordering areas in the two countries.

They also called for improving organic farming, land reforms, mechanisation and smart subsidisation of the farm sector to increase the production and yield of crops.

They also discussed challenges like the raising of net availability of food grains, tackling poverty and hunger, unavailability of water due to its misuse, adulterated pesticides, smugglingof seeds and their poor mixing, high electricity tariffs, lack of awareness on existing agricultural schemes and subsidies, low literacy rate, and malpractices in the distribution of agricultural products and its effects on the development of the sector.

The participants believed that the two countries must utilise existing forums to resolve their mutual water disputes.

They underscored the need for an equitable distribution of growth and that efforts should be made to utilise land routes for trade between the two countries.

The participants said both India and Pakistan had a great potential of religious tourism which can also become a source of promoting better ties. They suggested a joint working group on tourism involving legislators and public of ficials from both sides for the purpose and sought review of visa policies by both countries to facilitate the `touristic movement`.

MPs from India and Pakistan stressed that visa-free travel of Saarc should also be extended to the legislators from sub-national (provincial) legislatures.