ISLAMABAD  - The civil society representatives from India and Pakistan on Thursday strongly advocated amity between the two neighbours.
They also urged both sides to bury their bitter past and move on for a peaceful and prosperous future by means of mutual cooperation.
The third Islamabad Dialogue organised by the Jinnah Institute in collaboration with the New Delhi’s Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDR) saw the active participation of academia and intelligentsia comprising defence and strategic experts, former military men, diplomats and representatives from different segments of civil society.
It is the third consecutive dialogue in line with track-II diplomacy between India and Pakistan organised annually since 2011.
The two-day event will conclude Friday (today).
Apart from Indian delegates, noted Pakistani personalities who showed up for the event included politician and former Ambassador Sherry Rehman, MNA Ahsan Iqbal, former Governors State Bank of Pakistan Salim Raza and Shahid Kardar, Lieutenant General (Retd) Talat Masood, former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad Khan, Ambassador (Retd) Aziz Ahmed Khan, Ali Dayan Hassan, Afrasiab Khattak, Dr Rifaat Hussain and Dr Hassan Askari Rizvi.
Generally, the speakers from both the sides were unanimous in their contentions and suggestions that strengthening mutual or bilateral cooperation between India and Pakistan was essential for mutual gains. The participants advocated enhanced diplomatic, economic, cultural, government-to-government and people-to-people contacts at the respective levels. They also suggested cross-cultural visits between the nationals of the two States and initiating students exchange programmes.
It was also suggested to leave contentious issues aside till the normalisation of relations between both the neighbours. The participants were in agreement that the outstanding issues like Kashmir, Sir Creek and Siachen could wait for an appropriate time till the two sides came closer enough to touch upon the grey areas and the military establishments at both the sides should be made to play positive role for cordiality of relations instead of sabotaging the peace initiatives between India and Pakistan.
At the concluding day, the participants from both sides would draft a joint resolution containing recommendations on enhancing cordial cooperation between the two neighbours, on multiple fronts.  
The CDR has had organised a series of events for bringing India and Pakistan closer. These include a dialogue titled “Need to reinforce ceasefire 2003. Indo-Pak Delhi dialogue,” “Cross-LoC civil society dialogue in Jammu,” and several other events held in Muzzafarabad, New Delhi, Islamabad, Poonch and Srinagar.