South Asian Parliament initiative enjoys support

Shimla, Jun 4: Aiming to bring all SAARC countries under a South Asian Parliament, a two-day conclave of Parliamentarians today decided to set up a South Asia Parliamentary Commission headed by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to put in place a deliberative and consultative mechanism within the SAARC agenda.

The proposed commission would have four members from each member country nominated by the heads of political parties and two experts who would meet at periodical intervals.

The Shimla Declaration, adopted at the meet spelled out the roadmap for better regional cooperation among the SAARC countries, and called for solution of all bilateral issues through dialogue in an atmosphere free of violence and terrorism and without any third party intervention in internal problems of any country in the sub-continent.

The eight-page declaration, which coincided with the 35th anniversary of Shimla agreement, welcomed the current peace process between India and Pakistan aimed at exploration of all options for a final settlement of Jammu and Kashmir problem.

The declaration urged India and Pakistan to undertake nuclear and conventional military confidence building measures (CBMs) to put in place a comprehensive regime of CBMs and also exhorted the other SAARC countries to evolve sustainable dialogue mechanism for solving the inter and intra state conflicts.

The declaration unequivocally condemned terrorist attacks against innocent people ''wherever they occur, whoever sponsors and on whatever pretext'' and rejected violence as a means by parties to the conflict.

It called upon the people and the governments to join hands against the scourge of terrorism and violence on any pretext while addressing the genuine aspirations of the people and the causes giving birth to dissatisfaction among masses.

Concerned about instability in Afghanistan and ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka, the meet called upon all states of the region to work for peace in Afghanistan and expected the parties to conflict in Sri Lanka to restore the ceasefire and revive a meaningful dialogue with all stakeholders to resolve the issues.

The declaration called upon the SAARC countries to incorporate issues like spread of small arms and light weapons, narcotics trafficking, smuggling, organised crimes and criminal mafias under the domain of terrorism. ''The SAARC countries should offer no shelter, no arms, no training to terrorists and the member countries to evolve a joint policy to combat terrorism and narcotic export.'' It also accepted the suggestion by an Afghan delegate for sending a fact-finding mission to the war-torn country and also called for amicable resolution of contentious issues between India and Bangladesh.

It further urged the member countries to consider re-establishment of a SAARC security forum on the lines of ASEAN regional forum to develop its own security and conflict resolution mechanism.

The Shimla Declaration also endorsed the Bhurban Declaration of South Asian Parliamentarians meet, held at Muree in Pakistan in 2005, all declarations, protocols and agreements reached under SAARC, including the agreement on SAFTA, additional protocol on terrorism and SAARC social charter and called for their implementation.

The Declaration urged all the SAARC countries to take steps to end gender discrimination and take steps to bring women in the mainstream of national and regional microeconomic policies.

The feminisation of poverty must be addressed and all political parties should take affirmative action in enrollment of women in administrative and political spheres.

Expressing serious concern over acute water and energy deficit, the Declaration called for respecting all the bilateral water agreements between India Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal in letter and spirit and said these countries should adopt an integrated approach on water management.

The SAARC countries should take joint steps to protect hydro resources of the region and address threat of Global warming.

The Declaration also underlined the need for closer cooperation on issues like fiscal resource management, connectivity, free flow of information, removal of tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, promotion of people to people contact, boosting regional tourism and human security. It also stressed on the urgent need to put the poverty alleviation programmes on a fast-track through social interventions, safety-nets, micro finance and micro enterprise development, access to markets and increased distribution facilities, direct investment in basic infrastructure and diversification of exports.

The equitable distribution of incomes was responsibility of the government and policy measures need to be taken to ensure proper sharing of the GDP.

The declaration complimented the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) for taking a major initiative by holding this conference to boost regional co-operation.

UNI