Pakistan is expected to skip the forthcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) home ministers’ conclave in Maldives following the Supreme Court’s strong criticism of Interior Minister Rehman Malik. On his first official visit to the country for the conference as Indian home minister from September 24-26, Sushilkumar Shinde was expected to raise terror concerns with the immediate neighbours besides meeting Malik on the sidelines of the conference to place India’s concerns over the 26/11 case handling by Pakistan. “It is unlikely that Pakistan would appoint another interior minister or send someone on Malik’s behalf to attend the SAARC conference, in which case India will miss the opportunity to bring up many issues concerning Pakistan in the meet,” the Indian media quoted a senior official as saying. In its judgment given on Thursday, the Supreme Court not only ordered initiation of contempt of court proceedings against Malik for giving false statement before the court, but also asked the chairman of the Senate to disqualify him from the Senate for not being sagacious, righteous, and honest. The court directed the Election Commission to initiate legal proceedings against him for making false declarations and asked Malik to refund all monetary benefits drawn by him up during the period he occupied the office.
