Alumni SG´s

The four past secretaries general of SAARC include Abul Ahsan from Bangladesh, followed by Kant Kishore Bhargava from India, Ibrahim Hussain Zaki from the Maldives and Yadav Kant Silwal from Nepal. They have been activated under the aegis of Coalition for Action in South Asian Cooperation, an organisation supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, to make recommendations on improving and updating the functions of the SAARC organisations. These recommendations are to be presented to Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who takes over as Chairman at the forthcoming SAARC summit in Male on 9 May. Himal met with this gathering of SAARC alumni when they came together in Kathmandu to discuss their recommendations. This is what they had to say:

Abul Ahsan

SAARC is now collaborating with foreign governments like Japan and with international organisations. During my time there were serious reservations on the part of certain members about SAARC having anything to do with outside funding and foreign governments. So clearly this is an opening. As for those who question the use of SAARC for bilateral relations, look at India and Pakistan, which are forced to interact at so many levels. Because of SAARC, they do meet and interact at different levels in the presence of others. As with ASEAN or the EC, regional cooperation here has improved relations among the member states. Without the frequency of SAARC meetings, India and Pakistan might have avoided each other for years.