News
Friday, June 25, 2010
Indo-Pak trust deficit hampering efforts to set up SAARCPOL* Deadlock over proposal to set up regional police network on 2nd day of conference
* Pakistan proposes institute of criminology, raises issue of unrest in BalochistanBy Tahir Niaz
ISLAMABAD: Trust deficit between Pakistan and India is proving to be a major hurdle in moving ahead on a proposal to set up a regional police network, as discussions continued in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Interior Ministers’ Conference, sources told Daily Times.
On the second day of the conference, SAARC members, except for India and Pakistan, said that they did not have any objection to the formation of the regional police network (SAARCPOL).
Sources privy to the dialogue said that both India and Pakistan are not ready to share information on terrorists and criminals under, what they claim, are extraordinary circumstances in their countries.
“Both India and Pakistan are opposed to the expansion of the information-sharing mechanism,” the sources said.
The two neighbouring countries are also not in consensus on the issue of networking arrangements among SAARC police authorities.
Under article 10 of the SAARC Charter, no proposal can be accepted without the support of all member countries.
Earlier, Sri Lanka had presented the proposal to set up a regional police network to help detect trans-national crimes, control terrorism and arrest wanted criminals.
Institute of criminology: Sources further said that Pakistan had proposed setting up an institute of criminology in the country to help update security personnel of member countries on the latest techniques of crime prevention and detection.
Pakistani authorities protested in the meeting that though India had a similar institution, it did not extend visas to Pakistani students and guaranteed no security for them within India.
Balochistan issue: Pakistan also raised the issue of unrest in Balochistan due to Indian involvement. However, sources said, India denied any involvement.
As part of the SAARC endeavours for strengthening regional connectivity, a separate meeting was held to explore possibilities for stepping up cooperation in immigration departments of the member countries.
Police chiefs and interior secretaries of the SAARC countries are meeting today (Friday), while talks among interior ministers of the member countries will be held on June 26.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk