Pakistan Relation With SAARC Countries Notes by Barkat Ali Elham

SAARC: Origin, Growth, Potential and Achievements

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established on 8
December 1985. The evolutionary process of regional cooperation in South Asia to assess the
pace of regionalism in reaching at its present destination as SAARC. The evolution passed
through four phases that include: Conception (1977-80) The Meeting of Foreign Secretaries
(1981-83), The Meeting of Foreign Ministers (1983 85), and The Summits (1985-2004).

The first concrete proposal for establishing a framework for regional cooperation in South Asia
was made by the late president of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman, on May 2, 1980. Prior to this, the
idea of regional cooperation in South Asia was discussed in at least three conferences: the Asian
Relations Conference in New Delhi in April 1947, the Baguio Conference in the Philippines in
May 1950, and the Colombo Powers Conference in April 1954. Since 1977, the Bangladesh
president seemed to have been working on the idea of an ASEAN-like organization in South
Asia. During his visit to India in December 1977, Ziaur Rahman discussed the issue of regional
cooperation with the new Indian Prime Minister, Morarji Desai. In the inaugural speech to the
Colombo Plan Consultative Committee which met in Kathmandu in December 1977, King
Birendra of Nepal gave a call for close regional cooperation among South Asian countries in
sharing river waters. President Ziaur Rahman welcomed the King’s call during the former’s visit
to Bangladesh in January 1978. President Ziaur Rahman had also informally discussed the idea
of regional cooperation with the leaders of South Asian countries during the Commonwealth
Summit in Lusaka (1979) and the Non-Aligned Summit in Havana (1979). However, the
Bangladesh president seems to have given a concrete shape to the proposal after his visit to Sri
Lanka and discussion with the Sri Lankan president, J.R. Jayawardene, in November 1979.
Several factors seem to have influenced President Ziaur Rahman’s thinking about establishing a
regional organization in South Asia during 1975-1979:

(1) change in the political leadership in South Asian countries and demonstration of
accommodative diplomacy by the new leaders;
(2) Ziaur Rahman’s need for Indian support to legitimize his coup d’état regime;
(3) an acute balance of payment crisis of almost all South Asian countries which was further
aggravated by the second oil crisis in 1979;
(4) failure of the North-South dialogues, and increasing protectionism by the developed
countries publication of an extremely useful background report by the Committee on
Studies for Cooperation in Development in South Asia (CSCD), identifying many
feasible areas of cooperation; assurance of economic assistance for multilateral
cooperative projects on sharing water resources of the Ganga and Brahmaputra by United
States President Jimmy Carter and British Prime Minister James Callaghan during their
visit to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in January 1978; and the Soviet military
intervention in Afghanistan in late December 1979 and the resulting rapid deterioration of
South Asian security situation. During this critical period, President Ziaur Rahman’s
initiative for establishing a regional organization which would give the leaders of South
Pakistan Relation With SAARC Countries Notes by Barkat Ali Elham

Asian countries an opportunity to improve their understanding of one another’s problems

and to deal with conflicts before they turned into crisis, became much more appealing.

While the Bangladesh proposal was promptly endorsed by Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives
and Bhutan, India and Pakistan were skeptical initially. India’s main concern was the
proposal’s reference to the security matters in South Asia. Indian policy-makers also feared
that Ziaur Rahman’s proposal for a regional organization might provide an opportunity for
new smaller neighbours to regionalize all bilateral issues and to join with each other to gang
up against India. Pakistan assumed that it might be an Indian strategy to organize the other
South Asian countries against Pakistan and ensure a regional market for Indian products,
thereby consolidating and further strengthening India’s economic dominance in the region.
However, after a series of quiet diplomatic consultations between South Asian foreign
ministers at the UN headquarters in New York from August to September 1980, it was
agreed that Bangladesh would prepare the draft of a working paper for discussion among the
foreign secretaries of South Asian countries. The new Bangladesh draft paper, sensitive to
India’s and Pakistan’s concerns, dropped all references to security matters and suggested
only non-political and non-controversial areas for cooperation. Between 1980 and 1983, four
meetings at the foreign secretary level (April 21-23, 1981, Colombo; November 2-4, 1981,
Kathmandu; August 7-8, 1982, Islamabad; March 28-30, 1983, Dhaka) took place to
establish the principles of organization and identify areas for cooperation. After three years
of preparatory discussions at the official level, the focus of discussion shifted to the political
level in 1983. The first South Asian foreign ministers’ conference was held in New Delhi
from August 1-3, 1983, where the Integrated Programme of Action (IPA) on mutually agreed
areas of cooperation (i.e., agriculture, rural development, telecommunications, meteorology,
health and population control, transport, sports, arts and culture, postal services and scientific
and technical cooperation) was launched. The foreign ministers at this conference also
adopted a Declaration on Regional Cooperation, formally beginning an organization known
as South Asian Regional Cooperation (SARC). Following the New Delhi meeting, three
more meetings of the foreign ministers were held at Male (July 10-11, 1984), Thimpu (May
13-14, 1985), and Dhaka (December 5, 1985) to finalize details and determine a date and
place for the first meeting of South Asian heads of state. At the Dhaka foreign ministers’
meeting, a decision was taken to change the name of the organization from South Asian
Regional Cooperation (SARC) to South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC). The change in the acronym was based on the thinking that while SARC refers to
the process of South Asian Regional Cooperation, SAARC marks the establishment of an
association (organization) to promote and develop such cooperation. Finally, the first summit
meeting of the heads of state or government of South Asian countries was held at Dhaka
from December 7-8, 1985.

Aims and Objectives of SAARC

Pakistan Relation With SAARC Countries Notes by Barkat Ali Elham

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) comprising Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is a dynamic institutionalized
regional cooperation in South Asia, basically perceived as an economic grouping to work
together for accelerating the pace of socio-economic and cultural development. The objectives of
the association as defined in the SAARC Charter are:

 To promote and strengthen collective self-reliance among the countries of South Asia;
 To contribute to develop mutual trust, understanding and appreciation of one another’s
problem;
 To promote active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural,
technical and scientific fields;
 To strengthen cooperation with other developing countries;
 To strengthen cooperation among themselves in international forums on matters of
common interest; and
 To cooperate with international and regional organizations with similar aims and
purposes.

Cooperation in the SAARC is based on respect for the principles of sovereign equality,
territorial integrity, political independence, non interference in internal affairs of the member
states and mutual benefit. Regional cooperation is seen as a complement to the bilateral and
multilateral relations of SAARC members. Decisions are taken on the basis of unanimity.
Bilateral and contentious issues are excluded from the deliberations of SAARC.

Though economic cooperation among South Asian nations was not a new phenomenon yet
the quest for economic integration remained inhibited by the colonial heritage of these
countries.13 Since 1985, SAARC has evolved slowly but continuously both in terms of
institutions and programmes. However, it is true that most of the programmes and
achievements of SAARC exist on paper. The much talked about SAARC Food Security
Reserve could not be utilized to meet the needs of Bangladesh during its worst natural
disaster in 1991. It is also true that most SAARC activities are confined to the holding of
seminars, workshops, and short training programmes. These activities may be useful, but
they do not address priority areas and lack visibility and regional focus so essential for
evolving a South Asian identity. Most importantly, SAARC suffers from an acute resource
crunch. Unless the organization is successful in mobilizing funds and technical know-how
from outside sources, most of its projects cannot be implemented and, thus, its relevance will
remain limited.

Salient Features of the Organization Secretariat

The SAARC Secretariat is based in Kathmandu. It coordinates and monitors implementation

of activities, prepares for and services meetings, and serves as a channel of communication
between the Association and its member states as well as other regional organizations. The
Pakistan Relation With SAARC Countries Notes by Barkat Ali Elham

Secretary General, who is appointed by the Council of Ministers from member countries in
alphabetical order for a three-year term, heads the Secretariat. Mr. Q.A.M.A. Rahim from
Bangladesh is the current Secretary General. The previous Secretaries Generals were from
Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The next Secretary General is to
be from Bhutan. Seven Directors on deputation from member states assist the Secretary
General. The SAARC Secretariat and member states observe 8 December as the SAARC
Charter Day.

SAARC Regional Centers

Regional Centers covering Agriculture, Tuberculosis, Documentation, Meteorological

Research, and Human Resource Development have been established in different SAARC
capitals: SAIC (Dhaka, 1998) STC (Katmandu, 1992) SDC (New Delhi, 1994) SMRC
(Dhaka, 1995) SHRDC (Islamabad, 1999) SCC (Kandy, 2004) SCZMC (Malé, 2004) and
SIC (Katmandu, 2004). In addition, three new regional centres covering Culture, Coastal
Zones Management, and Information are being established.

Successes of SAARC

SAARC, while avoiding the contentious issues, focuses more on eradicating social evils like
poverty, health and education, goods and human smuggling, particularly of women and
children. However, it is unfortunate that even in these areas, SAARC has not been able to
live up to the expectations. Since its inception, in its various summits, SAARC took
numerous decisions but the implementation of those decisions remains ineffective. However,
despite this, some important agreements and conventions are listed below:

1. Food Security Reserve: An agreement on establishing SAARC Food Security Reserve was
reached during the third SAARC Summit 1987, which came into force on August 12, 1988. It
was meant to provide reserve of food grains in emergencies;

2. SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism: It was signed in Kathmandu

in November 1987 during the third SAARC Summit and came into force on August 22,
1988. As per this convention, member states are committed to extradite or prosecute alleged
terrorists, thus, denying them the safe heavens;

3. SAARC Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances: This convention

was signed during the fifth SAARC Summit in November 1990 and came into force on
September 15, 1993. It seeks to reinforce and supplement at the regional level all the relevant
international conventions and promote regional cooperation among member states in both
law enforcement and demand reduction;
Pakistan Relation With SAARC Countries Notes by Barkat Ali Elham

4. Agreement on SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA): This agreement was

signed by the Ministers of member states on April 11, 1993 during the seventh SAARC
Summit. It was aimed at providing gradual liberalisation of intra regional trade.

5. SAARC Convention on Regional Arrangements for the Promotion of Child Welfare in

South Asia: As it is evident from the title of Convention, it was signed as a token of
recognition of this fact that quarter of world‟s children live in South Asia and many of them
need assistance and protection to secured life to fully enjoy their rights and to develop to
their full potential and lead a responsible life in family and society. This Convention was
signed on January 5, 2002.

6. SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children

for Prostitution: This Convention was signed on January 5, 2002 in recognition that
trafficking in women and children for the purpose of prostitution is incompatible with the
dignity and honour of human beings and is a violation of basic human rights.

7. SAARC Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters: It was signed on August 3,

2008 in order to combat crime by strengthening cooperation in the prevention, investigation
and prosecution of crime.

Apart from these conventions and agreements, SAARC Summits have proved to be fruitful
for sideline meetings among the heads of states. This has been especially true in case of India
and Pakistan, where in the past on at least two occasions, the Colombo SAARC Summit of
1998 and the Kathmandu Summit in 2003, helped in breaking the ice between the two
countries and paved the way for normalisation of relationship.

Regional Cooperation ─ Reasons for Failure

Unfortunately, there is little that SAARC can claim to be its achievements. (Unlike other
regional organisations like ASEAN, SAARC‟s performance and progress has been dismal. In
fact, during 30 years of its existence, SAARC failed to hold 11 annual summits mostly due to
political reasons both at bilateral and internal levels. The organisation has been a failure,
which was also admitted by the Heads of the member states of SAARC during the last
Summit held in 2014. Yashwant Sinha, India‟s Former External Affairs Minister went to the
extent of calling SAARC “a complete failure.” He went on to say that “I find SAARC‟s
future is bleak” as the organisation cannot move beyond organising a cultural event or
establishing an educational institution as part of its initiatives.

South Asia has a huge potential as the combined economy of this region is the third largest in
the world in terms of GDP following the United States and China and the eighth largest in
terms of nominal GDP. The region comprises three per cent of the world‟s area and has 21
per cent of the world’s total population. Yet, the regional countries have not been able to take
advantage of what has been gifted to them by nature. SAARC's Global Foreign Direct
Pakistan Relation With SAARC Countries Notes by Barkat Ali Elham

Investment (FDI) is only three per cent and it contributes only two per cent of the world
trade. Even worst enough, 24.5 per cent of its population lives in poverty. Trade among the
regional countries remain dismal despite the conclusion of South Asia Free Trade Agreement
(SAFTA) in 2006. Total trade of the region is less than five per cent of the region’s total
commerce and in services it is 0.2 per cent as compared to 26 per cent in ASEAN. This
situation obviously does not present a very encouraging picture as far as regional cooperation
is concerned. In fact, Lyon described South Asia, two decades ago, as a “region without
regionalism.”20 At the same time, growing economic as well as energy interdependency has
been proving a major factor towards bringing the regional countries on some sort of
understanding on regional cooperation. However, there are some hurdles in the path of
attaining this regional cooperation such as political instability in the region, the
preponderance of India and the lack of trust of one another’s intentions among the member
states.