Pakistan Pledges $3 Million to SAARC COVID-19 Emergency Fund

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New Delhi: Pakistan on Thursday pledged $Three million to the South Asian Affiliation for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) grouping’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund on the situation that the fund is managed by the SAARC secretariat.

Pakistan is the final member of the SAARC to contribute to the fund, which was created with a preliminary corpus of $10 million offered by India following a video convention of leaders of the grouping on 15 March.

“Whereas speaking Pakistan’s choice to the Saarc Secretariat, it has been conveyed that each one proceeds of the Fund must be administered by the Saarc Secretariat and that the modalities for the Fund’s utilization must be finalized via consultations with the Member States as per the Saarc Constitution,” stated a press release from Pakistan’s Overseas Workplace, made accessible by the Pakistan Excessive Fee in New Delhi.

“Pakistan’s perspective on this regard was additionally conveyed throughout a phone dialog between Overseas Secretary Sohail Mahmood and Secretary-Normal SAARC Esala Ruwan Weerakoon,” the assertion added.

In accordance with New Delhi, India’s engagements with SAARC members on COVID-19 associated issues are stand-alone occasions however Pakistan had sought to convey all points beneath the SAARC secretariat to block Indian initiatives.

On Wednesday, Pakistan didn’t take part in a video convention of senior SAARC commerce officers saying it selected to keep out because the SAARC secretariat was not concerned.

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