SAARC
(South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) was established in 1985 by
the nations of South Asian region that include Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan. Upon creation of
SAARC each country agreed to cooperate in formation of trade bloc and to
perform together for the economic and political development of the region. However, SAARC is losing its importance by
every passing year. It was established with great doable charter for its member
countries.
South
Asia has multiple issues due to certain bilateral-complicated issues, which is
one of the factors for the political division. South Asia is one of the backward
and underdeveloped regions in the world and there is a dire need for
development and a higher rate of economic growth in all the member countries of
the region, but no favourable steps have been taken by the members to fulfil
the need.
The
region hosts 24.78 per cent of the world’s population but accounts for only
$11.64 trillion of the world’s GDP (at PPP). Factors like poverty, illiteracy,
inequality, unemployment, low productivity and malnourishment are haunting the
population of the region. It is pity
that this forum has fallen victim of regional politics and could not grow to
the expectation of the people as the member states have not been able to
strengthen their economic ties to a significant extent to work together towards
the development of the region.
There
is a need of collaboration for developing their industrial and social sectors
and improving their political ties.
I
myself represented Pakistan in SAARC Meeting of Experts on the implementation
of the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism, Colombo, Sri
Lanka in 1990. My proposal of
establishing SARAC-POL (Like INTERPOL) despite approval could not be
established. As part of the SARAC
charter the signatory countries agreed upon the following five areas of
cooperation:
Agriculture and Rural Development
•
Telecommunications, Science, Technology and Meteorology
•
Health and Population Activities
•
Transport
•
Human Resource Development
As
keen observer of development of this region I regret to note that there has
been no notable achievement made by SAARC so far. SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area) was made
by SAARC, which came into force on the first day of 2006 but this agreement has
never been implemented till today.
They
also established fields of cooperation like environment, economic development,
energy and sharing criminal data of criminals, but again, none of this either
proved to be fruitful
SAPTA
South Asia Preferential Trading Agreement was also formed by them in 1995 in
order to promote trade amongst the member countries.
At
the time of creation of SAARC, it was decided unanimously that no bilateral
issue would be discussed at this forum but these issues have always dominantly
emerged affecting the performance of SAARC. The blame games and the inter-states
conflicts amongst the member countries have caused further harm to the
foundation of SAARC. It is unfortunate
that instead of dealing with the problems jointly the members are blaming each
other for the terrorism, violence, extremism and sectarianism happening in the
region.
The
inclusion of Afghanistan, back in 2005 is said to be the calculated move by
India to undermine Pakistan’s position in SAARC. The increasing ties between
India and Afghanistan and India’s financial support to Afghanistan are a clear
signal that both are willing to destabilize Pakistan.
The
region is further encountered with many unresolved border and maritime issues
including terrorism by Afghan Taliban, refugee crisis, smuggling, narco-trade,
Kashmir dispute, disputes between India and Sri Lanka over nationality of
Tamilians, India and Nepal issue over border, disputes between India and
Bangladesh over Chittagong refugees etc.
I
would like to say that over the period of time India has developed its high
level of influence on Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and
Afghanistan as it has 70% area amongst all SAARC countries. Also the small
countries do not share border with each other except for Pakistan-
Afghanistan. These countries have become
like satellites of India. In many of the occasions, India either by itself or
by using other member country seizes the authority to cancel the meetings of
SAARC. Pakistan tried to hold and host
the meetings twice in the past but India did not let it happen because of
number game to block any meeting. The details of these two incidents damaged
the credibility of the SAARC.
The
continuous time to time delay in different SAARC summits following various
pretext particularly at the behest of India have paralysed the organisation. It
can never function independently and effectively unless it gets out of the
clutches of India. Due to this assumed dominant position of India in the region
it has a hegemonic role in the region creating the sense of insecurity among other
members of the association.
In
1988, at the conclusion of three-day Summit, then Prime Minister of Pakistan
Benazir Bhutto addressed the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC), which was attended by the premiers of seven member states;
Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi, Sri Lankan President Junius Jayewardene,
President Hussain Mohammad Ershad of Bangladesh, King Birendra of Nepal, King
Sigme Wanchuk of Bhutan and Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. She was
the elected chairperson of SAARC for the next year at the inaugural session of
the summit. It was the fourth such conference since the association was founded
in Dhaka in 1985.
In
her address to the delegates of the summit she said
‘Mutual
suspicions and rivalries have divided our countries in the past and kept them
from coming together whole-heartedly in joint endeavours for the good of all
our peoples,’ ‘Some of us are spending
too great a proportion of our national resources on defense, maintaining large
military forces that face each other. The truth is that our people face the
same common problems - poverty, disease, slums and ignorance -- and it is to
the vanquishing of these enemies that we should direct all our efforts.’
It
was an idea to become one economic strong block in the interest of citizens of
each country.
Let
us confess that the SAARC has failed to achieve its original targets. I propose veto power must be done away
with. What happened in Maldives at the
behest of its neighbouring country is a matter of record. Nepal continues to be
terrorised by India and has become subservient nation to it.
It
would have been a historic achievement if SAARC had played its role to resolve
the issues between Pakistan and Afghanistan or Pakistan and India. I have
hardly seen even a single effort to resolve these pressing issues.
The Article has been Published in ‘’The
Nation’’ on January 12th, 2019
The Link to Article is: https://nation.com.pk/12-Jan-2019/saarc-on-ventilator
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