Pak absent at Saarc meet

Pakistan abstained from a meeting of power ministers from countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) in the national capital on Friday.

Pakistan was the only absent Saarc member at the meeting, where the power ministers of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Maldives decided to initiate discussions on setting up an integrated power transmission grids in the Indian subcontinent. Power Minister Piyush Goyal made the inaugural address at the two-day meet, wherein fixing norms for electricity trade and establishment of a South Asian Power Grid were discussed to address the power crisis in the region.

Goyal said Saarc Secretary General Arjun Bahadur Thapa, who will be forwarding the resolutions of the meeting to the Pakistan government, had sent an invitation to Islamabad but did not receive a response.

The power minister said establishing a Saarc grid would ensure that when there is excess power in one region, it can easily be used to meet deficit elsewhere. He further stated that economic sustainability of the Saarc is based on energy security as 30 per cent of the region’s energy demands are met through import.