'SAARC meet will only be respite in India-Pakistan crisis'

Guns may fall silent when the SAARC meet takes place in November, but it would only imply respite rather than a long-term solution to the ongoing crisis between India and Pakistan, an editorial said Monday.

The 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit will be held in Nepal Nov 26-27, the Dawn online said in its editorial.

"Accepting Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala's invitation to attend the conference in Kathmandu, Pakistan Premier Nawaz Sharif reiterated his desire for greater economic cooperation among the major countries of the South Asian forum," the editorial said.

"Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, had pleaded for greater cooperation among SAARC nations to alleviate poverty."

"This is the same Modi who has upped the ante in Kashmir by giving carte blanche to his troops to 'retaliate' against Pakistan," the editorial said.

Founded 29 years ago, all that "SAARC has done all these decades is to come up with a plethora of pious resolutions which have only remained confined to paper".

The editorial went on to say that the SAARC bloc comprise 23 percent of the world's total population, with enormous scope for trade and economic growth.

But the main issue now, "is the mistrust between its two major powers, Pakistan and India, and the latter's dominating attitude," the editorial concluded.