ISLAMABAD, Nov 30: The fate of the 12th Saarc Summit to be hosted by Pakistan in January will be decided next week.

Sources told Dawn on Saturday that if India and Bhutan did not confirm their participation in the next few days, Pakistan would move for the postponement of the summit. Islamabad was keen to hold the summit and could not wait indefinitely for logistics being the main concern, they said.

Officials said that Pakistan had been awaiting the replies and there was little time left between an affirmative reply and the summit to start. A minimum of six weeks were required to organize such a high powered event and it would not be possible to make arrangements after the first week of December, the officials maintained.

The position would be clear by the first week of December as the government would not wait beyond that, informed sources said, hinting that a decision to put off the summit would be announced if confirmation from India and Bhutan was not received by then.

The 12th summit of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) is slated for January 11 to 13 in Islamabad. However, the preparatory meetings are to begin from January 5.

India had been posturing to scuttle the summit and had been sending mixed signals to Pakistan, saying that given the lack of progress on the regional trade pacts agreed on at the last Saarc moot, attending the summit would be a meaningless exercise.

On Thursday Brajesh Mishra, key aide of the Indian prime minister, in an interview with the BBC said: “We could consider it, but in the absence of any substance to the summit, of course it’s very difficult for the prime minister to go.” But Pakistan made it clear on Friday that it would not accept preconditions from any quarters to ensure their participation at Saarc summit.

The Saarc charter does not provide for any pre-conditions for participation in the summit. However, according to the charter a summit cannot take place if even one member state decides to abstain from it.

When the Indian deputy high commissioner Sudhir Vyas in Islamabad was asked by the Dawn on Friday why New Delhi was taking that long to confirm its participation, he said: “India is looking into the dates and agenda.”

When reminded that enough time had been given for that, Vyas said: “We are looking at things in totality.”

He refused to give a timeline on when a decision was expected from New Delhi, saying: “I can’t predict it.”

Pakistan had communicated to all Saarc member states the proposed dates of the summit by early September. Ironically, Pakistan had proposed that the 12th Saarc summit be held in April but it was on request of the Indian foreign minister that it was scheduled for January.

If the summit is postponed it will not be the first instance. Previously two summits have been postponed, one in 1991 and the other in 1999.

The last summit scheduled for November 1999 in Katmandu had to be put off till January 2002 because India refused to share the platform with President Gen Pervez Musharaff.