Speaker's summit in Male rejects Pakistani claims

In another blow to Pakistan, the Male declaration adopted by South Asian Speaker's summit on Monday rejected all claims made by Islamabad on Kashmir.

"The South Asian Speakers' Summit, while adopting Male Declaration, overlooked all assertions made by Pakistani parliamentary delegation," sources said.

This comes a day after representatives from Pakistan tried to raise Jammu and Kashmir on to the table of an international conference of presiding officers of elected Houses in the Maldives.

Pakistan was strongly countered by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, who "strongly objected" to statements made by Qasim Khan Suri, Deputy Speaker of the Pakistani National Assembly.

Raising a point of order, Harivansh said commenting on the internal matters of any nation was a digression from the theme of the summit and should not be recorded in the proceedings.

The sources said that the Male declaration reflected India's position prominently, which included inter alia commitments to work collectively on promoting equality at work including equal remuneration and creating jobs for young people, nutrition and food security as drivers of maternal, child and adolescent health in the Asia Pacific Region and overcoming challenges and utilising opportunities to strengthen the regional agenda for delivering on Paris Agreement.

The Fourth South Asian Speakers' Summit was attended by an Indian Parliamentary Delegation led by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

At the conclusion of the summit, Om Birla held bilateral talks with Speaker of Bhutan Assembly Wangchuk Namgyel and members of his delegation on the sidelines of the summit.

Before discussions, the members of the delegations stood up to pay respect to late Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj.

The Indian Delegation also held detailed deliberations with the Parliamentary Delegations from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka on matters of bilateral interest.

At the conclusion of the Summit, Birla thanked the Speaker and Secretary-General of Maldives Parliament for organizing the Conference and wonderful hospitality.

Earlier, the Fourth South Asian Speakers' Summit on achieving SDGs was inaugurated by the Speaker of Peoples Majlis of Maldives in Male on September 1.

The Summit business commenced with the plenary wherein all the participating Presiding Officers reported upon the follow up by their respective Parliaments on the Colombo Declaration, brought out in the third summit held there in July last year.

Birla informed the Summit in detail about the various measures initiated by Parliament of India pursuant to Colombo Declaration.

"The Indian Parliament has regularly taken up the issue of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and that the Members of Parliament have enthusiastically participated in the deliberations on the same," Birla said.

He added that India's economic development is closely aligned with environmental protection and under this paradigm, its emphasis is on green development.

He told the delegates that in India the Parliament is playing a key role in consensus building and providing guidance to the policymaking process on issues arising out of SDGs alongside monitoring the implementation of these policies by the government.

The summit also deliberated in on "promoting equality at work including equal remuneration and creating jobs for young people" and "Achieving SDGs 2 and 3 - Nutrition and food security as drivers of maternal, child and adolescent health in the Asia-Pacific region".

Harivansh, the Deputy Chairman, also participated in the two sessions.