The summit that wasn’t

India’s refusal to attend the Saarc summit to be hosted by Pakistan sabotaged the meeting after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan favoured the boycott. India was afraid that Pakistan will highlight its atrocities in Indian-held Kashmir in the summit.

Pakistan should not be worried about the postponement of the meeting. The country should form a strong stance that it will not attend the next meeting if Kashmir’s issue is not on the agenda. The summit’s quorum is considered incomplete if a single member is not in attendance and if Pakistan refuses to attend the meeting the summit will not be held.       If India can do that why can’t Pakistan?             

Col (r) Riaz Jafri

Rawalpindi

*****

This refers to the editorial, ‘The Saarc scene’ (Sept 29). In its efforts to isolate Pakistan globally, India has announced to boycott the forthcoming Saarc summit to be held in Islamabad in November. In 1995 when the 8th SAARC summit was scheduled to be held in New Delhi tensions between Pakistan and India were at a peak. The then prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto decided not to attend the summit but she sent the president to represent Pakistan. In this way, the summit was not sabotaged. Now, the Indian PM has chosen a path of belligerence and left no stone unturned to cancel the summit. Undoubtedly, it is a severe setback to regional cooperation in South Asia.

It is high time the boycotting countries helped resolve the differences between the two neighbouring countries. India has successfully exercised its financial and military influence on the member countries to pull them out of the summit. However, the patience displayed by Islamabad against the Indian provocation and brinkmanship will go a long way in shaping the future of the South Asian region.

Muhammad Fayyaz

Mianwali