Dr Fehmida Mirza, Speaker National Assembly has said that the SAARC nations should contemplate the creation of South Asian Parliament for sustainable peace and prosperity in the region.
She said that it would be the largest forum of legislators, commanding the trust of 1.7 billion South Asians and would enable the member countries to negotiate sustainable solutions to bilateral and multilateral problems. She said this in her keynote address at the working session of the 5th SAARC Speakers and Parliamentarians Summit being held in New Delhi, said a press release received from India on Sunday. Dr Fehmida Mirza said that the conception of SAARC parliament would infuse a new life into SAARC forum besides supporting, guiding and protecting the emerging democracies of the region by becoming a vanguard of freedom in South Asia.
She said that South Asian region has seen enough bloodshed, wars and conflicts; therefore, the parliamentarians should jointly bring an end to the people’s miseries. She said that all SAARC Parliaments are confronted with identical challenges which bear the burden of more than half of the world’s poor, mal-nourished, half-naked, illiterate and disease-stricken people.
She said that unfortunately democracy could not be consolidated in all the SAARC due to deeply entrenched authoritarianism in the societies which never allowed the uninterrupted growth of a vibrant democratic culture. She said that Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal were witnessing the dawn of a new era of people’s power. She said that the parliament’s competence is now overwhelmingly marked by its ability to enact laws, to hold the executive accountable for all its acts of omission and commission.
Referring to the cooperation between SAARC nations, Dr Fehmida Mirza said that that Pakistan had recently agreed to accord the “Most Favored Nation” status to India by replacing a “positive trade list” with a “negative trade list”.
