ISLAMABAD, Feb 1: This time it is not a natural calamity but a political crisis in Nepal that has cast a dark shadow on the 13th Saarc Summit conference scheduled to be held in Dhaka from Feb 6.
"The latest development in Nepal has indeed raised questions about whether the summit will be held on the scheduled date," a senior government official said when contacted by Dawn on Tuesday night.
The dismissal of the multi-party Nepalese government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was supposed to attend the Saarc Summit, makes participation of Nepal doubtful.
The king of Nepal is unlikely to leave the country to attend the summit because of the political crisis at home. Under the Saarc Charter a Summit conference cannot take place even if one head of the government or state of a Saarc member country is unable to attend the summit.
There was no official word from the government on the situation in Nepal. Most of the Saarc-related officials left for Dhaka and on Tuesday including Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz who is the current chairman of Saarc directed the Foreign Ministry to get an update on the situation from its embassy in Kathmandu. However, senior officials were unable to establish contact with the embassy staff till late night as all communication lines, including landline and mobile phones, were disconnected in the entire country.
Pakistan's Ambassador to Nepal Zamir Akram was in Karachi on Tuesday, it is learnt. Sources said Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri talked to his Bangladeshi counterpart over the phone on Tuesday.
Gyanendra to attend summit
DHAKA, Feb 1: Nepal's King Gyanendra, who sacked his country's government and assumed all powers on Tuesday, will attend a summit of South Asian leaders in Dhaka next Sunday, Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said.
Mr Khan said Nepal's ambassador in Dhaka had told him Gyanendra and his wife would be in Dhaka on Sunday for the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Mr Khan, speaking by telephone, said this meant the summit would go ahead.
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