New Delhi: Pakistan's proposed plan for a Taliban representative in the SAARC meeting scheduled to be held on September 25 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York has been bulldozed by other members of the group. The new Taliban regime has not yet been recognised by governments across the world nor the new dispensation has not approached the UN for credentials.
According to sources, Pakistan wanted to keep an “empty chair”, and was against the participation of representatives from the previous Ashraf Ghani regime.
Pakistan's proposal for a Taliban representative was shot down by the remaining members.
"Lack of consensus” led to the cancellation of the SAARC foreign ministers’ meeting.
Nepal’s foreign ministry on Tuesday sent a letter to the SAARC secretariat, saying that “due to the lack of concurrence from all member states as of today, the informal meeting of the SAARC council of ministers proposed to be held in person on September 25 on the sidelines of the 76th UN General Assembly session will not take place.”
Afghanistan is the youngest member state of SAARC, having joined in 2007. India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are part of the group. The SAARC Secretariat was set up in Kathmandu on January 17, 1987.
