As the seven South Asian nations look hopefully forward to the 12th Saarc Summit in Islamabad on January 4-6, for a major breakthrough on the region's trade front, particularly in respect of South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta), nothing can be said for sure about its outcome.
It is, however, significant that never before in the history of the Association since its inception in 1985, the earlier 11 Summits witnessed anything like the spontaneous outburst of goodwill as now abounding between its major constituents and nuclear neighbours - Pakistan and India.
Now that both seem to have discarded the path of confrontation in favour of peaceful co-existence between their peoples, the least now expected is the approval of the Saarc Social Charter that seeks to promote participatory governance, equitable distribution of income and universal respect and promotion of human rights.
And this, to say the least, can set the pace for a number of far-reaching decisions for the greater good of this vast and wide region.
This has reference to the observation Pakistan Foreign's Secretary, Riaz Khokhar, made at a press briefing on Saturday.
Saying that the report of the secretaries on Safta would go to the Standing Council and then to the Ministerial Council, he pointed out that in the event any differences still persisted, the Summit conference comprising the Heads of State and Government could remove the stumbling blocks.
Sounding optimistic he recalled that already successful exchanges of tariff preferences between the Saarc members in the last four rounds of trade negotiations had been achieved and the region should look towards a more "ambitious undertaking of creating a free trade area."
Pakistan, he said, was fully committed to Safta and would continue its efforts to reach an accord on the outstanding issues in the preparatory meetings leading to the 12th Summit.
The other areas of focus, he said, included agreements and conventions of suppressing terrorism, narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, trafficking in women and children for prostitution and child welfare, pointing out Pakistan was fully committed to the effective implementation of these accords and arrangements.
More to it, referring to comprehensive reports on poverty alleviation by the Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation, Saarc Secretary-General and also the Association's finance ministers, he said these would be submitted to the Conference too.
From all indications, the deliberations of the 12th Saarc Summit should brighten the prospects of paving the way for a purposeful era of peace, progress and tranquillity in South Asia.
It goes without saying that the Saarc as an organisation, is equally determined to see to it that the peoples inhabiting the region are assured of what they have always deserved but have remained deprived of due to the failure of their leadership over long past.
This should become all the more evident from the dawn of wisdom now visible all over, among the people belonging to almost every segment of society, including the governments.
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