SAARC SUMMIT MEETING
India’s refusal coupled with influencing Bangla Desh, Bhutan and Afghanistan
also to not attend the ensuing SAARC Summit meeting in Pakistan on the pretext
of the atmosphere being not very conducive for the meeting due to the
“increasing cross-border terrorist attacks in the region” is sheer
nonsense and tantamount to sabotaging the meeting. India is afraid that
Pakistan could raise the question of the atrocities committed in Kashmir which
would be quite embarrassing for her. I think Pakistan should not be unduly
worried about the cancellation of the meeting and instead take it to be a God
riddance as it would save Pakistan couple of millions that would have cost her
to arrange the meeting. At the same time Pakistan must make it clear to the
SAARC Secretariat that she would not attend the next meeting if Kashmir was not
on its agenda. The SAARC quorum is considered incomplete if even a single
member doesn’t attend and in the c! ase of Pakistan’s refusal to attend the
meeting SAARC would not be able to hold its future meetings. If India can
do it why can’t we also? We have had enough of this policy of appeasement
and it was high time that we took a solid position and made that known to the
SAARC countries as well.
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
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