NEW DELHI, FEB. 15. As senior officials from India and Pakistan meet in Islamabad today to prepare the ground for a comprehensive bilateral engagement, people-to-people contact will be the last item on their agenda. Encouraging contact between the two civil societies, however, can no longer be seen as secondary by New Delhi and Islamabad. On both sides of the border there are demands for more and immediate action.

The most energetic response to the unfolding India-Pakistan engagement has come from the Punjabis. The enthusiasm for rediscovering Punjabiyat, the shared cultural heritage of a community that suffered immensely during Partition, is growing among the elite of the divided province as well as the Punjabi diaspora.

The Lahore Declaration issued by the World Punjabi Conference, which concluded in Pakistan earlier this month, captures this new mood. The declaration wants Islamabad and New Delhi to "to relax visa restrictions in this world of globalisation, especially for the promotion of Punjabi language, literature and common heritage... especially for writers, poets and journalists."

In a reference to heroes of the shared past, the declaration called on the Pakistan Government "to erect memorials for Bhagat Singh."

The significance of the declaration lies in the fascinating agenda it sets for the promotion of the Punjabi language. It reflects on the tragedy in West Punjab, which traded the mother tongue for Urdu after Partition for ideological reasons.

Acutely aware of the fact that the Punjabi language was neglected in West Punjab while it has flourished in the much smaller Indian Punjab, the Lahore Declaration demands that the "Punjabi language be given its due status in Pakistan and be put at par with both Urdu and English."

From a realistic perspective, it could be argued that the formal engagement between New Delhi and Islamabad is unlikely to succeed without a parallel rapprochement between the divided Punjab.

The Punjabis dominate the Army in Pakistan and control the nation's political structure. Traditionally, they have been the strongest opponents of a normal relationship with India. Unless there is a change in their mindset, any peace with India will remain unsustainable.

It is in this context that the visit of the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt. Amrinder Singh, to Lahore to attend the World Punjabi Conference assumed importance.

Capt. Singh's visit generated a fair amount of positive sentiment and some new ideas on economic and commercial cooperation across the border. Now a return visit by his counterpart, the Chief Minister of Pakistani Punjab, Pervaiz Elahi, is said to be under active consideration in the two capitals.

Mr. Elahi has drawn praise from the Punjabi diaspora for taking steps to promote the Punjabi language in his province. His visit here in the next few weeks could help initiate the long-awaited reconciliation between the divided Punjab, through a careful step-by-step process.

After signing the agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area in Islamabad in January and another linking five South Asian nations with two South-East Asian ones in Phuket, Thailand, earlier this month, India is pressing ahead with its trade diplomacy.

The diplomatic focus now shifts to the Gulf. India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will discuss this week the prospects for a more intensive economic cooperation, which could eventually lead to a free trade agreement between the two sides.

The GCC has established a Customs Union last year and offers a rich market for Indian goods and services. Trade between India and the GCC has grown, but the huge potential remains untapped. A FTA between the two offers huge opportunities for Indian industry.

The Secretary-General of the GCC, Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, is in town for the first-ever consultations between the two sides on comprehensive economic cooperation. After talks here, he will head to Mumbai where the Foreign Office and the Confederation of Indian Industries are hosting the India-GCC Industrial Conference.

Although the Gulf has always been seen as an important source of energy and a potential economic partner, there never has been enough political emphasis on realising the huge potential for cooperation. We are now, hopefully, turning an important corner as the GCC and the Arab world are moving towards greater economic integration in the Middle East.

The Mumbai meeting, to be inaugurated by the Union Commerce Minister, Arun Jaitley, follows the first political dialogue between the GCC and India on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly last September.

Meanwhile, there is continuing trouble in paradise. Last week's crackdown on the democratic Opposition in Maldives by its long-serving President Abdul Gayoom has not received much attention in the Indian media. But international human rights groups have condemned the action. The London-based Amnesty International said police in the Maldives carried out "mass arrests" on Friday, ahead of a political rally planned for Saturday in the island capital of Male.

India will have to start paying attention to the troubled situation in the island nation, which could blow up into a full-fledged political crisis in the coming months.