NEW DELHI, MAY 1: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today called to condole the death of Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande who died in New Delhi this morning. A fortnight ago, Musharraf had spoken to Deshpande on the fate of Sarabjit Singh, the Indian national who is on the Death Row in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail. Musharraf had earlier deferred Sarabjit’s April 1 execution.

“Musharraf Saab called today to express grief over Didi’s death. He said she was like my sister. He also said, we had spoken about a fortnight ago when she had called for showing mercy to Sarabjit,” Shivnath Ram, Deshpande’s personal assistant for the last 30 years, told The Indian Express tonight.

Sarabjit’s family has just returned from Pakistan after meeting him in jail and urging the government there to pardon him.

Ram said Musharraf told him that a delegation of senior ministers from Pakistan would be attending Deshpande’s cremation tomorrow.

A Rajya Sabha MP, Deshpande, 79, had actively worked for better relations between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Sherry Rehman and Pakistan’s Kashmir and Northern Affairs’ Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira were reaching Delhi tonight to attend the cremation. In fact, Sherry Rehman was in New Delhi when the India-Pakistan Forum of Parliamentarians was formed in August, 2005 with Deshpande’s initiative.

Deshpande’s commitment towards the peace process was evident as through her organisations, Akhil Bharat Rachanatmak Samaj and Association of Peoples of Asia, she had established friendly relations with neighbouring countries, especially Pakistan.

She organised the Indo-Pak Amity Meet in 1996, attended by academics, artists, social activists, and journalists from both countries, and led the Indian delegation to Karachi in 1997 for a similar meet.

In 1999, she again led an Indian delegation to the Pakistan Peace Conference, organised by Pakistan Peace Coalition and visited many places.

In March 2000, she led a women’s Bus of Peace from Delhi to Lahore, comprising women from every walk of life. That same year, as founder chairperson of Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia, she hosted two Buses of Peace from Pakistan to Delhil.

Deshpande also helped retired Services officers to form the Indo-Pak Soldiers’ Initiative for Peace in India and its counterpart in Pakistan. She led a delegation of the India chapter of this organisation to Pakistan in 2001.