<p>Prime Minister Modi’s surprising and bold stop at Lahore on his way back from inaugurating the India – financed Parliament in Kabul on December 25, 2015, ostensibly to wish Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif on his birthday, certainly signified a clever use of symbolism to add impetus to the recently revived Indo – Pak peace process. It was the first visit by an Indian PM to Pakistan after 11 years and expectedly grabbed international headlines. Except the Jamaat-e- Islami, all other mainstream opposition parties in Pakistan and civil society in general welcomed the gesture. In India, the Congress party was critical of the “knee – jerk flip flops, U-turns and unstructured manner of decision making.”</p>
<p>Given the visit's heavy symbolism and significance, the IPCS requested subject experts from a cross-section of society in both India and Pakistan to share their initial thoughts, which have been been compiled as a this compendium.</p>