LAHORE, July 27: The Saarc Secretariat must grant civil society organisations observer status for all its meetings as being done by the United Nations to promote people’s perspective on all policy issues and decisions.

A follow-up meeting of the 6th People’s Summit - an effort by civil society organisations to push people-centric agenda in countries which are member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) - noted with concern that policymakers were hardly taking any input from common people in decision-making.

The meeting, which was held at the South Asia Partnership-Pakistan office on Friday, said this gap between Saarc policymakers and people of South Asia had resulted in misplaced official priorities and decision-making inertia. It said that Saarc had not progressed at the desired pace because people and their problems had not been given place on its agenda. “The result is disinterest and insensitivity at the general level,” it added.

Rohit Kumar Nepali, director of the South Asia Partner-International, journalist MB Naqvi and representatives of civil society organisations demanded that all Saarc countries should allow visa-free travel. Once people are given this facility, regional, inter-state and intra-state tensions would start dissolving, they said.

The Saarc agenda, they said, must include protection of human rights, poverty alleviation and good governance and that governments must consult civil society on handling these issues.

Similarly, they said that economic justice had eluded most Saarc countries due to mismanagement of natural resources. Environment, ecology and sustainable development had been exposed to great risk in all Saarc countries. Justice and peace were being replaced by militarisation in most countries, putting collective regional future at risk, they added.

The meeting decided that the People’s Summit would hold interactive discourses on all above-mentioned thematic issues and undertake an advocacy campaign in Saarc member countries. It decided to create an online network to promote people’s perspective on the official Saarc agenda. It agreed to work for visa-free travel among Saarc countries, implementation of Saarc Development Goals and the South Asian Free Trade Agreement, South Asian permit for labour force, free work permits and poverty alleviation.