NATIONAL 1 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Call For Summit

The first meeting of prominent South Asian citizens urges the region's governments to hold the much-delayed 10th SAARC Summit

By KESHAB POUDEL

South Asian nations have the potential to improve their situation through regional cooperation. But differences at the top level have always blocked the possibility of meaningful partnership. Although it contains one fifth of the world's population, the seven countries of South Asia have failed to make concrete efforts to reduce their poverty.

The political tensions between India and Pakistan, which possess nuclear weapons and continue to make progress in the areas of science and technology, have been exacerbated in a way that has obstructed a cooperative approach to ensuring the well-being of the people.

Meeting of Citizen's Commission for south Asia : Regional solidarity

The tenth summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was postponed last year following India's objection to the military takeover in Pakistan. As long as India continues with its hard stance on Pakistan, immediate initiatives on regional cooperation would remain elusive.

"As the people in civil society are taking initiatives to hold the summit, the governments of the region should not avoid it for long," said Sartaj Aziz, a former Pakistani foreign minister.

Participated by prominent figures from South Asia, including politicians and former diplomats, first meeting of Citizens' Commission for South Asia also approved a common guideline for the future.

"SAARC's inability to meet regularly at a time when the challenges posed by globalization and a rapidly evolving global economic architecture have created a situation in which the region has been unable to evolve a cogent and a cohesive response at the regional level to these challenges," Aziz said.

The meeting expressed great anguish over the continuing political tensions in the region, which have hampered purposeful and cohesive cooperative efforts.

Participants shared the vision that South Asia in the near future would become an integrated community for purposes of trade, investments and movements of goods and services and labor. To this end, the participants stressed the need to finalize and operationalize SAFTA Treaty by the agreed deadline of December 2001.

The meeting also emphasized that bilateral or sub-regional arrangements for free trade should be pursued in a manner that would serve as building blocks for liberalizing trade in the whole region, taking into account the special needs of the least developed countries (like the India-Sri Lanka Bilateral Free Trade Agreement).

The sudden illness of India's former prime minister, Dr. I.K. Gujral, cast anxiety on the last day of the meeting. But it unanimously endorsed important resolutions.

With support from the Coalition for Action on South Asian Cooperation, more than two dozen eminent personalities from the region made a plea for action at a time when official channels are virtually in limbo.

From poverty alleviation to information technology and corruption to democracy and governance, the commission stressed the need for improvements.

"South Asia has had an uneven experience with democracy and governance. The commission feels that a lot of the region's problems could best be addressed through a responsive and democratic polity and by pursuing the best practices of governance in all areas, including accountable administration, inclusive development, human rights, empowerment and meeting the minimum basic needs of the people of South Asia," the commission said.

The commission expressed its deep disappointment that progress in eradicating mass poverty, illiteracy and deprivation has fallen far too short to meet the aspirations resources endowment and the objectives of SAARC. It urged both governments and civil society to greatly intensify efforts at improving the condition of the poor people, particularly in the rural areas.