Islamabad: The thaw in Indo-Pak relations has had its other effects. Or so it seems. Soon after Islamabad unveiled confidence-building measures with New Delhi last week, it officially proposed to South Asian Association for Regional Co-Operation (SAARC) secretariat in Kathmandu that the 12th summit of the regional grouping be convened on its own soil.

This might take place in the first half of December. In his announcement on May 6, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali had mentioned that Pakistan would soon be giving fresh dates for the summit, said 'Dawn' quoting sources.

The SAARC secretary-general will communicate the proposed dates to all member-states for their consent. The summit was initially slated for January 11 to 13 in Islamabad but it had to be postponed owing to non-confirmation of participation by India and Bhutan because the non-removal of 78 items on the negative list of trade.

With the Prime Minister removing them from the negative list on May 6, the matter appears to have been settled. Many in Pakistan and across the border see the 12th SAARC summit as the first tacit test of the genuineness of the Indian leadership's recent peace overtures. However, recent statements emanating from India's ministry of external affairs that measures announced by Pakistan were "inadequate" make analysts here suspicious about the Indian motives, the newspaper remarked.

There is an apprehension that given India's tense relations with other SAARC member countries, such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, New Delhi may not share the SAARC platform with them in Pakistan. The 12th summit was not the first to be postponed. Two summits were deferred before, one in 1991 and the other in 1999. The last SAARC summit scheduled for November 1999 in Katmandu had to be put off till January 2002 because India refused to share the platform with President Pervez Musharraf who had assumed power as the country's chief executive through a military coup a few days before the summit.

ANI