NEW DELHI: Despite a bitter row over the death sentence awarded to former navy commander Kulbhu­shan Jadhav, India has clea­red a proposal to host a disaster management seminar in Gandhinagar for officials from Pakistan and other member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, the Indian Express said on Friday.

The seminar is likely to be held in May.

“We have finalised the Saarc training plan, and Pakistan will be invited. But it is up to Islamabad to decide whether it wants to send their representative or not,” the paper said, quoting a home ministry official.

The Saarc Disaster Ma­­nagement Centre (SDMC), which was being run from Delhi since last year, was shifted to the Gujarat Ins­ti­tute of Disaster Manage­ment (GIDM) in January after Pakistan said it had ‘no objection’ to the move. Other Saarc nations — Afg­h­­anistan, Bangladesh, Bhu­tan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka — had already given their nod, officials said.

According to the home ministry’s proposal, the GIDM will hold a module on ‘application of space technology and managing risks’ and ‘programme on short-range regional early warning system’.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2017