Asif Shaikh A six-member delegation from Nepal had arrived in city to take part in a global peace march titled ‘Jai Jagat 2020’. Members of the visiting delegation comprise: Basnet, Geeta Pandit, Bhawani Ghimire, Jagat Bahadur Deuja, Lyam Bahadur Darjee, Somparsad Bhandari and Ghimire Bhabani. Jai Jagat is an international campaign to respond to the deepening economic, social and environmental crisis. The campaign is an urgent appeal for people to transform and achieve ‘One Planet and One People. The themes of the global march are: eradicating poverty, eliminating social exclusion, ameliorating the climate crisis, halting conflict, and violence,” a press statement said. Karachi Press Club (KPC) hosted a lunch in honour of the guests. Representatives of the media and civil society organisations were also present. KPC’s acting president Saeed Sarbazi and senior member Tahir Hasan Khan, welcomed the delegation. Speaking at the KPC reception, member of the delegation Jagat Bahadur Basnet said, “Most of the delegation members belonged to land rights movement in Nepal”. “The Nepalese peasants are facing poverty due to lack of resources and opportunities,” he said. Karamat Ali, the executive director at PILER, underlined the need for the revival of SAARC. He said the last summit was held in 2014 and the 2016 summit was to be held in Islamabad but it could not happen. Civil society activists and academics who attended the lunch included Fahim Zaman, Dr Riaz Shaikh, Farhat Parveen, Saeed Baloch, Nazim F Haji, Zahid Farooq, Imran Sherwani, Nasir Mansoor, Shujauddin Qureshi, Habibuddin Junaidi, and Qazi Khizar.
