RECOMMENDATIONS OF TWO-DAY WORKSHIP

THEME: RESTRUCTURING OF SAARC

HELD ON MARCH 30-31, 2010 AND ORGANIZED BY

THE PROGRAM ON PEACE STUDIES AND CONFLICT REOSLUTION,

DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF

KARACHI AND THE HANNS SEIDEL FOUNDATION, ISLAMABAD

 

 

BACKGROUND

A two-day workshop on Restructuring of SAARC was held on March 30-31, 2010 at the HEJ Auditorium, University of Karachi. The workshop concluded with a panel discussion which was participated by the following panelists:

• Ambassador Nihal Rodrigo, former Secretary General of SAARC and currently adviser on foreign affairs to the Government of Sri Lanka.
• Ambassador Shamshad Ahmed, former Foreign Secretary, Government of Pakistan.
• Prof. Dr. Moonis Ahmar, Chair, Department of International Relations, University of Karachi and Director, Program on Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.
• Dr. Maqsudul Hasan Nuri, Acting President, Islamabad Policy Research Institute, Islamabad.
• Dr. Shaheen Akhtar, Senior Research Analyst, The Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad.
• Prof. Dr. P. Sahadevan, South Asia Studies Division, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
• Dr. Shaheen Afroze, Director Research, Bangladesh Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Dhaka.
• Prof. Sumansari Liyanage, Department of Economics, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
• Dr. Nischal Pandey, Director, Center for South Asian Studies, Kathmandu, Nepal.
• Ms. Zaib Zaheer, Assistant Director South Asia Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad.

 

The panel discussion, which was chaired by Ambassador Shamshad Ahmed Khan discussed in detail different issues which impeded the progress of SAARC as a viable regional organization and presented some of the ideas which could help transform SAARC as a functional organization. Based on the discussion held at the two-day workshop and the deliberations of the panel discussion, following draft recommendations are hereby presented covering broad themes of regional cooperation in South Asia:-

1) CONCEPTUAL

A. Pragmatic and result-oriented approach in order to make SAARC functional is required. Re-writing of the Charter of SAARC is also necessary so as to accommodate important changes which have occurred in South Asia since the inception of SAARC around quarter of a century ago.

B. Cooperative security framework to galvanize the role of SAARC should be pursued by regional countries.

C. Restructuring can take place in phases with an emphasis on reforming the structure and functioning of SAARC.

 

II) FUNCTIONAL

A. Secretary General of SAARC should be of a high stature and needs to be accountable to the organization and not to his/her government. SAARC Secretariat needs to be expanded and made more impressive in terms of infrastructure, offering of services and organizational strength.

B. On substantive issues, unanimity may be required but on other issues decisions can be made with simple majority.

C. Implementation of vision and goals of SAARC so that so that its credibility gap is bridged and the regional organization is taken more seriously inside and outside the region.

 

III) ATTITUDE – BEHAVIOR

A. There is a need to change the mindset both at the governmental and non-governmental level in South Asia so that a positive attitude and behavior on dealing with critical issues faced by the region could be adopted.

B. Idea based approach needs to be replaced with result oriented approach by reducing restrictions on the free movement of people, goods, services and capital in a reasonable period of time.

C. Professional and serious approach needs to be pursued so that obstacles which exist for accelerating the process of regional cooperation are removed by undertaking incremental measures.

 

IV) MISCELLANEOUS

A. There is a need for more cultural connectivity in South Asia so that mistrust, suspicions and paranoia which obstruct the progress of SAARC are reduced.

B. Priorities of SAARC need to be changed as the emphasis should be on cooperation in trade, energy, water and other areas of human security.

C. SAARC need to allocate more resources for projects on infrastructure development.