ISLAMABAD, July 20: Preparatory meetings for the 12th Saarc Summit to be hosted by Pakistan in January will begin in December, foreign Office sources told Dawn on Sunday.

The dates were fixed by the foreign secretaries of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) in Katmandu earlier this month.

According to the approved schedule, the meeting of the preparatory committee led by the Saarc director-generals and joint secretaries will be held on Dec 29 and 30, to be presided over by Pakistan’s S. Asia Director-General Jalil Abbas Jilani.

The Saarc standing committee comprising the foreign secretaries of the member states will meet from Dec 31 to Jan 1. The meeting will be presided over by Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar. Meetings of the council of foreign ministers will come just ahead of the

summit and will be held on Jan 2 and 3, with Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri in the chair.

The Saarc heads and governments summit will open on Jan 4 and conclude on Jan 6.

While the dates for the summit and the preparatory meetings have been firmed up, a decision on the venue of the summit has yet to be taken.

The foreign office and other relevant authorities will shortly finalize this matter, officials said.

A top-level official told Dawn that invitations would be sent out to the Saarc leaders by next month.