ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: The third Saarc interior ministers’ conference has been postponed till early next year on Bangladesh’s request.

“The meeting of the Saarc interior/home ministers and its preceding meetings which were scheduled to be held in Islamabad from Nov 24 to Nov 27 have been postponed,” Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said on Saturday.

The meeting that was to be attended by ministers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka was supposed to discuss regional cooperation for dealing with the menace of terrorism, narcotics and organised crime.

According to sources, the Bangladesh government had sought postponement of the conference because of parliamentary polls in the country on Dec 18. The conference will now be held in the first quarter of 2009.

Other meetings affected by the postponement include: the meeting of interior/home secretaries; Eighth Saarc Conference on Cooperation in Police Matters; third meeting of Saarc Immigration Authorities; third meeting of Focal Points of Saarc Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk (STOMD); and third meeting of Focal Points of Saarc Drugs Offences Monitoring Desk.

These meetings were to confer on issues like the Saarc Visa Exemption Scheme, Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, functioning of Saarc Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk, Saarc Drugs Offences Monitoring Desk and matters relating to combating corruption.