Pakistan again plays spoilsport as India, other SAARC nations fight coronavirus

Islamabad insists that COVID-19 Emergency Fund, other initiatives to fight the pandemic should be administered by the SAARC secretariat

Pakistan has once again resorted to playing spoilsport, even as India and the other nations in South Asia are stepping up cooperation to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and to deal with its impact on the regional economy.

The senior trade officials of the SAARC nations had a video conference on Wednesday to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 and the curbs enforced to contain the pandemic, particularly on commerce within the South Asian region. Pakistan boycotted the video conference, demanding that it should have been organized by the SAARC secretariat instead of being spearheaded by India.

Islamabad on Thursday also demanded that the SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Fund should also be administered by the secretariat of the bloc, although it was initiated by New Delhi with a voluntary contribution of $ 10 million nearly three weeks ago.

Aisha Farooqui, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan Government, said that any initiative by the SAARC, including the virtual meeting of the trade officials, could only be effective if spearheaded by the secretariat of the regional organisation.

The 34-year-old SAARC has its secretariat at Kathmandu in Nepal.

Farooqui said in Islamabad that no representative of the Pakistan Government had participated in the video conference among the trade officials of the SAARC nations, as the secretariat of the organisation had no role in organizing it.

The video conference was a follow-up to the virtual summit Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held on March 15 with the leaders of almost all other SAARC nations to discuss the ways to deal with the onslaught of the COVID-19 and its human and economic implications in South Asia.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had not participated in the virtual summit, his Special Advisor on Health Affairs, Dr Zafar Mirza, had represented him.

A representative of the Pakistan Government had also attended a video conference of the top health officials of the SAARC nations on March 26.

Pakistan was also the last among the eight members of the bloc to contribute to the SAARC COVID-19 emergency fund. The fund was set up last month with a voluntary contribution of $ 10 million by India. With contributions from six of the seven other SAARC members – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives – coming in, the fund now has $ 18.43 million, which could be used to meet emergency expenses by any member nation to contain the pandemic or manage its fallout. After dilly-dallying for weeks, Pakistan on Thursday pledged a contribution of $ 3 million, but insisted that the fund must be managed by the SAARC secretariat – ostensibly to make it sure that the leadership role does not go to India.

Sohail Mahmood, Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, conveyed to the SAARC Secretary General, Esala Ruwan Weerakoon, on Thursday that all proceeds of the fund must be administered by the secretariat and the modalities of managing it should be finalized through consultations with all the members in accordance with the charter of the organisation.

The SAARC trade officials, who participated in the video conference on Wednesday, recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown, transport curbs and travel restrictions have a considerable adverse impact on trade in the South Asian region. “It was stressed that new ways and means be jointly identified to sustain and expand the intra-regional trade until the normal trade channels are fully restored. The imperative need to maintain essential trade within the SAARC region was viewed as an important thrust area for favourable consideration,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of the Government of India stated in a press-release issued after the video conference.

The issues the SAARC trade officials discussed included facilitation of trade through pragmatic solutions such as provisional clearance of imports at preferential duty with suitable conditions, provisional acceptance of digitally signed certificates of origin, acceptance of scanned copies of documents for clearance of imports by customs and release of payments by banks, resolving issues being faced for exports or imports at land customs stations on land border. “Impact of health issues such as COVID-19 on regional trade and possible measures to mitigate it was seen as a new focus area for discussion in the larger framework of trade facilitation in the SAARC region,” the MEA stated. “The need to enhance the quantum of intra SAARC trade was also highlighted.”