Saarc comes out of limbo

The summit, to be held under unprecedented security in Islamabad following the Christmas day assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf, will discuss a report on poverty alleviation in the region, Pakistani foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar said.

"A more ambitious undertaking of creating a South Asia Free Trade Area (Safta) will also come up for discussion" at the January 4-6 meeting, he said.

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Agreements on suppressing terrorism, narcotics, trafficking in women and children for prostitution will be on the agenda at the 12th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), he said.

Founded in 1985 to foster good neighbourly relations and economic cooperation in the region, Saarc never realised its objectives because of hostilities between India and Pakistan.

In its 18-year history the organization has seen "many ups and downs," Khokhar said, adding that "frequent postponements" of the summits hampered Saarc's progress.

Pakistan's bid to host the summit in January this year was frustrated by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's refusal to participate in the wake of heightening tensions between the two countries.

However, as the two countries moved towards normalisation in April after two years of sparring, Vajpayee agreed to visit Pakistan -- a move hailed by the regional experts as a sign Saarc could revive its dormant agenda.

"The significance of the upcoming summit is that it will revive the functioning of Saarc, which was stalled because the Indians were not ready to sit on a conference table with Pakistan," chairman of the Institute of Regional Studies, Khalid Mahmud, said.

Saarc groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

According to the World Bank the region remains one of the most disadvantaged in the world.

"More than 40 percent of its 1.4 billion people live on less than one US dollar a day, making South Asia home to nearly half of the world's poor," its August 2003 report said.

Analysts said the miserable socio-economic conditions among its member states stem either from domestic troubles or bilateral disputes.

India, which forms 70 percent of the total area in South Asia and holds about two-thirds of the region's population, borders almost every Saarc.

"Unfortunately other members are scared that India wants to dominate the region," former Pakistani ambassador to Thailand, Kamal Matinuddin said.

"Saarc can make progress if India removes this fear and settles disputes with others, including the Kashmir issue with its big neighbour Pakistan."