December 10, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 5,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: Pakistan on Monday indefinitely postponed the Saarc summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad from Jan 11 to 13, accusing India of looking for excuses to sabotage the event.

The additional secretary of the foreign ministry, Kamran Niaz, told a news briefing “that the Indian government has been acting deviously all along regarding its participation in the 12th Saarc summit in Pakistan” ever since the decision to hold the summit was finalized in August.

The preparatory meetings of the council of ministers and the standing committees which were to be held from Jan 5 to 10 also now stand cancelled.

In a statement, the additional secretary said that Indian failure to confirm the participation of its prime minister in the summit, as required under the seven-member Saarc charter, left Islamabad little time to make arrangements for the summit, and with no alternative but to postpone the summit.

The foreign ministry recalled that an unavoidable situation had been created by India in the background of a statement given by Foreign Minister Mian Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri soon after taking over his office as a member of the elected civilian government. The statement, highlighting the government’s desire to improve relations with India, was welcomed internationally but the Indian response was negative.

“We are conveying this position formally to the Saarc secretary-general for onward communication to the member states,” the statement said, adding that Pakistan would announce fresh dates for the summit after consulting the member states and the Saarc secretariat.

The official recounted various Indian efforts to sabotage the summit and observed that it began “by accusing Pakistan of dragging its feet on economic cooperation under Saarc, particularly in the context of Sapta and Safta (about trade and commercial relations). Then there were suggestions in the Indian media that in view of the fluid political situation it would not be possible for India to participate in the summit. India also tried to stir controversy about the agreement to hold the summit in Islamabad in January 2003.

There were also reports in the Indian media, hinting that instead of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha might represent New Delhi in the summit, contrary to the Saarc Charter, or seek postponement of the summit while permitting the preparatory officials’ meetings to be held as scheduled — again a suggestion which was unprecedented and thus unacceptable.

The official ruled out as being unprecedented convening of the summit in a country other than a Saarc member state.

Bhutan, like India, had also not informed of its acceptance to attend the summit, he told a questioner, saying it was open to one’s imagination why Bhutan had not confirmed.

The official refrained from making any comment when asked about a reported US administration’s “demarche” to the Indian government, asking Delhi to “go slow” on its offers of economic and reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan as it might produce adverse impact on Pakistan with which the US was aligned in war against terrorism.

However, Mr Niaz concluded on a hopeful note, saying that only the summit had been postponed and “we have not said that Saarc is dead or in coma”.

He said Pakistan would remain associated with Saarc activities and added that Islamabad would like to put the summit back on rails.