Daily Times

PAKISTAN is part of several regional arrangements, including SAARC, which has failed to leave a mark on South Asia’s political or economic spheres. It’s high time that lessons that are drawn from other regional experiences, be utilized to reorganize or re-evolve aforesaid organization as a vibrant and delivering ones as South Asia is one of the least integrated region that adversely affecting the sustainable economic development in the South Asian states.

SAARC has been hostage to bilateral issues of its members, particularly India and Pakistan, and after any bilateral tension and rift, the organization is the main sufferer. Instead of resolving or setting aside bilateral difference like ASEAN members, these issues have become source of retardation for regional initiatives. The current impasse is a manifestation of hostile mindset in the region.

Among the other factors, the main reason for current state of affairs is ‘trust deficit’ amongst the South Asian states, ‘which is why most decisions taken in SAARC are just relations exercises designed to impress domestic audiences as well as foreign powers. Institutions have been created, and summits are held without any commitment to implement any decision or agreement. The trust deficit as well as post-colonial enmity has made South Asian states highly sensitive about preserving their sovereignty in the external domain. Smaller states have apprehensions of Indian dominance with greater regional integration. At domestic level, anti-Pakistan or anti-India card is still used for political gains, resulting in lesser public support for regional interaction or cooperation.

Further to this, there is gap between declarations and implementation of commitments at regional level. Though SAARC has concluded several conventions on terrorism, narcotic drugs and women and child trafficking, however, none of these have been able to produce substantial results. The foremostroot cause for SAARC inefficiency is bureaucratic hurdles and lack of coordination among political leadership. There are also no ‘established institutional mechanisms for interaction between the governmental and non-governmental sectors’. The SAARC Secretariat does not provide for regular inputs from key stakeholders, including NGOs, think-tanks and private sector. There also appears to be lack of acceptance for new ideas presented to the regional body with SAARC structure, especially in bureaucracies of its member states.

Despite the fact, SAARC countries are cooperating in trade, combating terrorism, food security, women development, drug abuse, infrastructure development, cultural exchange and environmental protection and SAARC countries also signed framework agreement on the South Asian Trade Area (SAFTA) in 2004, which was seen as a serious attempt towards integrating South Asian region, however, there is a long way to go as regional integration requires effective institutions reflecting functions of regional arrangement and distribution of power among the member states along with their level of commitment towards integrating the region.

Whereas, South Asian states are undergoing ethno-political conflicts, unresolved bilateral issues, image problem about each other and institution issues. At the same time, the economies in the region are being transformed by the market-driven forces of globalization. Viewing the low pace regional development main question is that have all the South Asian governments actually accepted the goal of regional economic integration? The serious commitment to move towards actual regional cooperation and integration is lacking.

There is difference of opinion among scholars and social scientists as to what constitutes regional development, still it is widely acknowledged that greater a states is connected with other regional states in economic as well as technological spheres, better are its chances of development and prosperity. Regional integration has today moved beyond traditional security domain, its focus is mostly on economic front, along with other non-traditional security issues.

For instance, Intra-regional trade among the ASEAN countries is more than 25 percent whereas SAARC’s share of intra-regional trade remains at just 5 percent of total trade of the region, which is less than two percent of the SAARC’s GDP. Because of this fact, the HDI ranking of ASEAN countries is better than SAARC countries. Though, South Asia Free Trade Area agreement envisaged trade facilitation in South Asia through harmonization of standards, simplification and harmonization of procedures and transit facilities, nonetheless, these are non-binding measure. There is not much of focus on human resource capacity building, infrastructure quality, transport, communication costs and facilities.

Furthermore, the regional cooperation activities need to be interlinked to increase the positive externality of cooperation. The rate of economic growth in those ASEAN as well as European countries are higher where the intra-regional trade volume is upwards.ASEAN as well as European integration were the result of market consideration and internal dynamics respectively, conversely, SAARC countries, for successful integration, should adopt gradual and pragmatic sequencing involving modest steps and long term regional economic integration vision.

Apart from this, there is a need for systematic attempt to reach out to political parties at local, regional and national level in every South Asian country, to create more conducive environment for cooperation. Public mobilization for greater regional cooperation and integration should be focused to generate political pressure on respective governments to cooperate. Another aspect to be tackled is fragmented character of decision making structure, bureaucratic control and prolonged policy making processes of South Asian governments at national and regional level, which makes implementation of any policy cumbersome.

It is high time that South Asian region should understands that how the regional set ups across the world have adopted the strategy of regional economic integration to exploit their resources for mutual benefit in a balanced and equitable manner. Therefore, the shared common economic goals along with more intra-regional trade activities in SAARC countries would bring economic development in the region. Consequently, the fruits of this economic growth would also been trickle down to the common man and the graph of sustainable human development would improve gradually.

(Sadia Nasir is a freelance writer, with key interest in South Asia, Central Asia and Major Powers’ policies in these regions. She is PhD Candidate at School of Politics and International Relations, QAU, Islamabad and has been on visiting faculty at National Defence University, Islamabad, and FAST and also worked at Islamabad Policy Research Institute and FRIENDS. She is author of a book, “SCO’s shifting agenda: Challenges and Response”. sadiasnasir@gmail.com)