South Asian Journal

Contents

South Asian Policy Analysis Network
(SAPANA)

Envisioning A New South Asia
Islamabad: April 30, 2006

Leading experts, academics, and scholars from the member countries of SAARC, representing different disciplines and sectors, met at the South Asian Journal Conference "Envisioning South Asia", facilitated by SAFMA on April 29-30, 2006, in Islamabad, Pakistan. They deliberated upon and initiated a process of evolving a holistic and integrated South Asian Vision by and for South Asians and a strategic understanding on meeting the challenges of the 21st century and globalisation and ushering in a new era of South Asian fraternal, equitable and collective partnership:

1. South Asia is at a historic moment of unprecedented potential for transforming its economic and social conditions and, together with China, emerging as two large economies in the next two decades, playing a key role not only in the global economy, but also in the development of human civilisation in the 21st century. Yet the world cannot be sustained by economic growth alone. Human life is threatened with environmental crises, conflicts, endemic poverty, natural calamities and an arms race.

2. Our societies have a rich cultural tradition of unity in diversity, creative growth through human solidarity and harmony with nature. In bringing these aspects of their culture in facing contemporary challenges, the people of this region could bring new consciousness and institutions to the global market mechanism that can take the world on to a new trajectory of cooperative, sustainable development and human security. Global cooperation in environmental protection, poverty reduction and defusing the flash points of social conflict and an end to violence, terrorism and repression will become the essential underpinning of sustainable development and human security in this century. Thus it is not the military muscle of a state/region that will be the emblem of status, but its contribution to meeting the challenge of peace, overcoming global poverty, protecting the planet from environmental disaster and contributing to humanizing the world and advancement of its people.

3. The global environment provides a historically unprecedented scale of capital flows, trade opportunities, information and technologies, which, if utilized, can dramatically transform the material and social conditions of life of the peoples of South Asia. A vision is efficacious to the extent that it can be concretized. This requires bringing to bear the new consciousness of South Asian Cooperative and Equitable Partnership to undertake specific policy actions. Apart from implementing the decision at the Islamabad SAARC Summit to establish a South Asian Free Trade Area, SAARC Social Charter, ISACPA Report on Poverty Alleviation, three broad areas for deepening economic cooperation can be identified for the purposes of specific policy action: (1) Energy Cooperation and Water Management and Conservation within South Asia; (2) Increased investment for accelerating economic growth, especially in physical and social infrastructures; (3) Restructuring growth for faster poverty eradication and human resource development.

4. With the most contiguous region of the world, a common history to share and similarities of cultures, South Asia has fewer baggage(s) to shed than Europe or the Far East. It is now booming with the ideas of regional cooperation that take a wholist approach towards the collective good of the region as they increasingly find state-centric and security-centred approaches inconsistent with the interests of our 1.4 billion people and the imperatives of our times.

5. India and Pakistan are at a crucial moment in history when economic cooperation between the two is necessary for sustaining their respective economic growth rates. a) India will require rapidly rising imports of oil and gas from the Middle East and Central Asia to fuel its economic growth. Pakistan is the natural conduit through which these oil and gas supplies can be transported into India and the rest of South Asia. b) India's growth in the past has been based essentially on the home market. In the future, sustaining growth will requite export markets in Pakistan and other South Asian countries. c) Similarly, the sustainability of Pakistan's GDP growth requires a large increase in investment, particularly in infrastructure, and the Indian private sector, along with direct foreign investment, can fill this gap for Pakistan. d) The oil and gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan to India alone can generate over $700 million a year and with similar lines from Central Asia, Afghanistan through Pakistan another $500 million. This could add 1.5 percentage points to Pakistan's GDP growth. e) The gains from trade between India and Pakistan will be greater for Pakistan than India, and can accelerate GDP growth in both countries. Thus opening up trade and investment is vital for growth sustainability in South Asia.

6. Energy and Water are two vital resource inputs into economic growth. South Asia requires integrated gas and electricity grids for the welfare of each South Asian country. Similarly, South Asian regional agreements among upper and lower riparian states on the model of the Indus Basin Treaty need to be made between Nepal, India, Bangladesh. Similar protocols need to be developed for upper and lower riparian districts/ provinces within each country. These are necessary to avid inter and intrastate tensions in the future.

7. Governments in South Asia need to realize that in the next two decades, South Asia will become the second largest economy in the world after China. This means that the centre of gravity will shift for the first time in 300 years, to this part of the world from the West. This presents a new challenge to South Asian citizens to develop new paradigms of economic policy, governance and international relations. a) At the level of economic policy we need to restructure our GDP growth so as to achieve growth with equity which requires making the poor not into victims but the subjects of the growth process, from being marginal to becoming the mainstream of economic growth. b) At the level of governance we need to give up the 18th century notion that economic gains must be translated into increased military power. In an inter-dependent world the emblem of the status of a country will be based not on its ability to destruct but its ability to save the planet from ecological disaster and to build a more humane world. c) At the level of international relations we need to replace the competitive and hegemonic model of interstate relations with a cooperative model. We can start with South Asian cooperation to demonstrate to the world that the maximization of national welfare lies not in conflict but cooperation, not through aggression but through human solidarity.

8. The remarkable concurrence of views expressed by the experts at South Asian Journal's conference reflect the immense urge of our peoples to outgrow the past and take a leap into a future that is free from want and conflict. Certain stages of history can be skipped, so can various evolutionary stages through which, for example, the European Union had to pass in the 20th century. The intrastate conflicts and interstate disputes must move from management to resolution in a result-oriented process that must at the same time allow, rather than hinder, regional cooperation to address the demands of our peoples. The lines of conflicts must change into the bridges of friendship and the fenced-borders must gradually soften before the urge of South Asians to become a fraternal and indivisible community of people with nation states, while keeping their sovereign equality, joining hands in submitting before the will of their real sovereigns-- The People.

9. With a step-by-step approach, and simultaneously, all sided measures can be taken through an integrated and well calibrated sequencing and realistic stages, towards South Asian Free Trade Area, South Asian Union, (Tourism/Environment/ Water/Energy/ Communication /Information/ Economic), South Asian Tariffs and Customs Union, South Asian Monetary Union, South Asian Bank and Development Fund, South Asian Cooperative Security and South Asian Parliament. However, to take a leap forward, there will have to be no hegemony, or ganging up by the small against the big. A new paradigm of equitable, if not equal, partnership must evolve to reshape our all-sided relations.

10. Welcoming the current peace process between India and Pakistan with its two-fold objectives: the exploration of all options for a final settlement of the J&K question in an atmosphere free of violence, terrorism and normalization of bilateral relations while implementing their joint statements of January 6, 2004, September 24, 2004 and April 18, 2005 in their letter and spirit. Appreciating the efforts by India and Pakistan to undertake nuclear and conventional military confidence-building measures, we urge them to put in place a comprehensive regime of CBMs that will ensure a nuclear-tension free subcontinent. We endorse the demands of India and Pakistan for negotiations with the other nuclear weapons powers to promote global non-proliferation and effective nuclear disarmament.
Appeal to all countries in the region to put in place comprehensive sustainable dialogue mechanisms for resolving all bilateral disputes. While India and Pakistan today have a composite dialogue in place which needs to be given further impetus and momentum, similar exercises are needed, for example between India and Bangladesh.

11. Concerned about various intrastate conflicts, such as in Sri Lanka, Nepal and elsewhere, we call upon the concerned parties to hold fire, take necessary confidence building measures and allow peace process to address their relevant genuine concerns and propose alternative solutions on which the parties could mutually agree to resolve their disputes.

12. Welcoming the victory of democratic struggle in Nepal, a broader consensus on convening a Constituent Assembly, without any conditions, the urge of all segments of civil society to find an amicable peaceful solution to the causes that gave birth to the Maoist upsurge and to set a democratic path of free and fair elections, we hope that the people of Nepal will realize the dream of a Republic and set a laudable example for those other peoples who are still struggling to achieve their democratic aspirations against the remnants of authoritarianism and extremism.

13. Facing the challenges of globalization and taking a collective stand in the ongoing trade negotiations on WTO, South Asia should set its own house in order to pursue its collective goal of creating an even playing filed both within the region and in the world.

While keeping the demands of an integrated and a wholist approach, the SAPANA Research Groups have agreed on the identification of problems in various areas and have made initial recommendations:

1. South Asian Free Trade Area
The agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) requires effective implementation, expanding the space for trade and, more importantly, economic collaboration, investment and development. If South Asia's economies are to be integrated, it presupposes development of trans-national communication networks and physical infrastructure and monetary cooperation involving greater coordination among the governments and the central banks. Despite limited complementarities in trade-able items, due to similar comparative advantages, expansion of trade warrants vertical and horizontal integration of industries and investment in joint ventures by public and private sectors. However, trade and investment will not move ahead unless tariffs are lowered, the negative-list kept to the minimum, para and non-tariff barriers removed and standards harmonized.

Streamlining borders transactions through trade facilitation at sub-regional junctions, special attention needs to be focused on promoting border trade. Increase in efficiency within the sub-region often spills over into trade outside the region as well, because improving customs or improving efficiency of ports helps both intraregional trade and international trade.

The Group on Tariff and Macro-economic Harmonisation Recommends:
The average rate of tariffs has gone down in all the South Asian countries but some of them impose para tariffs, including regulatory duties, anti-dumping duties, and specific duties and non-tariff barriers. Transparency in the tariffs structure needs to be ensured. While the average duties are not all that high there is a need to remove tariff peaks. Further reduction in duties should ensure that the industries where the country has dynamic comparative advantage are not closed down. The group also recommends trade facilitation because various procedural requirements discourages growth of trade;
Containing fiscal deficit policy should be pursued by making judicious choices between growth and stability;
The prudential regulations for the banks should be effectively implemented and it needs to be ensured that the efficiency gains result in higher deposit rates and/or lower rates on the advances. The pursuit of prudential regulations should not be applied on the small and micro enterprises who cannot meet the collateral requirements;
South Asian countries may continue to have floating exchange rates and the central banks may only intervene to keep the currency near the equilibrium value;
The South Asian countries may further deregulate the economy and may continue privatization policies as long as the private sector monopolies are properly regulated;
Whereas South Asian countries are struggling to promote trade within the region, the ultimate objective should be the economic union and common currency. Whereas political agreement would be necessary to make SAFTA effective, formulate the custom union and economic union, various steps will have to be taken before economic union is formed. The countries will have to coordinate the exchange rate, fiscal and monetary policies;
The coordination of policies would imply that the countries are willing to increase interdependencies and the commitment of the union to help the country suffering from any problem and a South Asian Fund may be created for this purpose. Various studies need to be conducted to examine the problems by way of policy coordination and the lack of economic policy options when the economic union is formed; and
The group also feels that the South Asian countries have achieved growth rates exceeding 8 per cent in recent years and they expect the growth rate to continue. However, the investment rates and other prerequisite to the high growth rates are missing and they must try to overcome the stumbling blocs to growth.

Investments
1. Intra-regional investment plays an important role in transferring surplus capital from capital endowed countries of a region to capital deficit ones and along with it technical, managerial and marketing skills. It also plays a vital role in industrial restructuring within the region and helps in moderating trade imbalances among the member countries.
2. In view of the crucial role of investments, it is desirable that member countries of SAARC evolve a common investment policy so that instead of competing with each other in terms of offering fiscal incentives, they facilitate freer flow of capital among them that extend beyond their respective countries. The elements of such an investment policy include capital flows to mitigate the trade deficit and capital scarcity, avoidance of double taxation, protection of investment and conditions governing the management of foreign exchange, differentiating between the requirement s of least and non-least developing countries.

The 13th SAARC Summit held in December 2005 adopted three treaties for promoting investment facilitation. These are related to customs cooperation, limited double tax agreement and setting up of an Arbitration Council. The scope of these agreements needs to be extended so that the goal of a SAARC investment area is realized.

2. South Asian Customs, Tariffs and Monetary Union
Intra-regional trade and Investment will, subsequently and gradually, translate into a South Asian Customs and Tariffs Union which may lead to a common exchange rate policy that will, eventually, necessitate the creation of a South Asian Monetary Union underwritten by macro-economic management and harmonization of trade, fiscal and monetary policies at the regional level.

No less important is the cooperation in the transport and communication sectors envisaging an integrated transport infrastructure that allows uninterrupted travel across and beyond our region and communication highways, facilitating free movement of people, goods and unhindered flow of information across the region and beyond, connecting South Asia with Central, South Western and South East Asia. Not only do rail and road links between Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh need to be rehabilitated, a system of connectivity will have to be constructed especially for the railways and the truckers will have to be issued special permits.

Nevertheless, the Indian and Pakistani governments must agree to transit of trade between Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Central Asia. For promotion of trade the countries will have to facilitate cross border movement of people and goods. Visa and custom facilities will have to be simplified, and for special categories of people and goods waived, across the board.

The Group on Custom Laws and Issues Recommends:
Trade is growing in the region the mindset of protectionism is changing. Trade barriers still exist, with high tariff barriers and a large number of non tariff barriers. The economies are booming and clearly need to be integrated.

Recommendations:
a. Customs laws need simplification and harmonization;
b. Dry ports need to be set up and transit rights be given freely;
c. Valuation procedures need to be harmonized;
d. Warehousing infrastructure, charges and fees needs improvement;
e. Common formats need to be developed for declaration forms;
f. These forms be made available in electronic form, and available in all major languages in the region;
g. Information and data be exchanged freely;
h. Countries to do away with secretive sensitive lists;
i. A common software be used that would simplify declaration and valuation;
j. Mutual recognition of certification;
k. Common standards and testing procedures to be followed;
l. Capacity building and technology transfer be speeded up;
m. Pakistan to take a lead in trade facilitation efforts, Sri Lanka to lead the efforts towards breaking down non tariff barriers;
n. Allow and encourage trade in services by recognizing University and college degrees across the region.

3. Water Sharing and Management
Increasingly, the governments and concerned institutions are realizing the need to address acute shortage of energy and water, incidence of drought and floods that often bring miseries to the people and, at times, states into conflict. The distribution and management of water resources, though quite a divisive issue among the upper and lower riparian regions across states, needs to be undertaken amicably without depriving the lower and upper riparian regions of their due to avoid a conflict over water issues which must not be politicized.

Bilateral treaties, such as Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan and the Treaty over Ganges between Bangladesh and India must be respected and upheld in letter and spirit. The Mahakali Treaty between Nepal and India may be implemented by removing reservations of either side. The quadrangle of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal may take up an integrated approach to manage water resources while keeping the interests of upper and lower riparian, on the one hand, and India and Pakistan must overcome their differences over Tulbul, Baglihar and Kishanganga projects within the framework of the IWT, on the other.

There are other major water related problems that need to be addressed on a priority basis with water cooperation among the member countries of SAARC to enhance water and food security. There is a great hydro-power potential in Bhutan and Nepal that can be utilized by other countries of the region. However, that would involve the need for a common or bilateral grid, on which all concerned countries would have to agree.

Recommendations of the Water Group
The regional water scenario of South Asia is predominated by increasing gap between increasing water demand and insufficient supply, high allocation to agriculture and growing new commercial demands, trans-boundary and regional conflicts generated from upper versus lower riparian water needs/interests, increasing interest in hydropower and new management experiences. Policy challenges are linked to the socio-economic approaches, selection of technical solutions and institutional capacity. The following general and specific recommendations could be made, based on the group discussion:
a. The trans-boundary conflicts are based on concerns of the lower riparian countries to secure river flows (Pakistan and Bangladesh versus India) on one hand and development interests of the upper riparian especially for the hydropower (Nepal versus India, India vs. Pakistan). The multi-purpose and multi-country planning for the Himalayan water resources and the South Asian water basins is the proposed future option. (proposed NIBB-C Water Ways is an example)

b. All South Asian countries are going through the experiences of decentralization and local management. Different models have been tried the success so far indicates involvement of local civil society, political acceptance and local institutional implementation capacity as the key elements. The national experiences needs to be impartially evaluated and put in the proper context.

c. The efficiency and productivity of water use in agriculture must be enhanced along with sustainable use of water in agriculture. The physical water stress and growing urban needs of Pakistan and India suggest a slow transfer of water from the sector.

d. All infrastructure developments should consider long term conservation of the natural water resources (all water bodies, including lakes, river sections and groundwater) and regenerative use of water. The central and top-bottom engineering approaches are not able to move forward due to political as well as hydrological reasons, hence, the technical options must be formulated across the appropriate local hydrological and political boundaries.

e. The human access to water resources, on the one hand, and increased commercial value of water, on the other, are the growing challenges for the planning and development. The secure allocations for the domestic and drinking water, equitable distribution and fair water pricing in different sectors and regions are the essential regulatory measures. The public sector as a service provider has the responsibility to define guidelines.

f. The water related sectors have the great opportunity for the knowledge sharing in the technical and managerial fields.

4. South Asian Energy Grid
Similarly, the energy cooperation should evolve into a South Asian Energy Grid with integrated electricity and gas systems. As India and Pakistan now agree, and they must move forward, the gas and oil pipelines can run from Central Asia, Gulf, Iran and Myanmar through Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to whole of South Asia and beyond. In this context of developing energy markets, power trading in the region calls for establishment of high voltage interconnections between the national grids of the countries. India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh should cooperate in transportation of gas and jointly developing, trading and sharing of energy.

The Energy Group Recommends:
South Asia is home to 22 percent of the world's population and occupies only 4 percent of the world land mass. All the countries in the region are developing economies and heavily dependent on energy imports despite being bestowed by nature with large energy resources including hydro, solar, wind and, to some extent, natural gas resources. However, they have not been able to exploit their energy resources to meet the demand. Energy imports constitute 27 percent to 87 percent of their commercial energy needs. Price fluctuations in the international oil market have been adversely impacting the economies of the region. Projected energy consumption to sustain the current economic growth levels would call for a more than 300 percent increase in their energy consumption by 2020. Energy security, therefore, assumes greater significance for the socio-economic development of South Asia. The major causes of concern from the regional energy security perspective are:

a) Short-term supply risks due to threat of war and military action that may impact Middle East or Iran, the primary source of commercial energy supply to South Asia;
b) Difficulty to pay for oil imports, when the prices shoot up sharply;
c) Prospect of obtaining to long term gas and oil supply contracts at affordable prices, which can also ensure greater price stability;
d) Availability of electricity to all households within a reasonable time span to enhance the socio-economics development and improve quality of life.

The following steps to be taken urgently to address the above concern:

a) Expedite development of indigenous energy resources including hydropower while taking into account issues of resettlement and socio economic crisis. Non-conventional energy resources, such as, the wind and solar energy resources, such as, the wind and solar energy to meet the long term energy demand;
b) Establishment of a South Asian regional power grid to facilitate exchanges and trading of power to meet the electricity demand in the region;
c) Development of a South Asia Gas Grid with pipelines from Iran. Turkmenistan, to facilitate natural gas surplus countries in the neighborhood of South Asia to facilitate natural gas imports into the region and its distribution among the countries of South Asia;
d) Establish South Asia Energy Research Programs for development of new technologies that would facilitate harnessing the benefits of solar and other energy resources on a more sustainable basis;
e) Establish regional energy cooperation on a long-term basis;
f) Undertake evaluation to examine the appropriateness and impact of power sector reform initiatives undertaken by the countries in South Asia to identify the need for any course correction or policy change.

5. South Asian Development Bank
Given a low rate of investment to GDP ratio, South Asia must create attractive environment for investment in high value-added manufacturing lines and trans-regional projects. Enhanced investment flows, both from within and outside the region, would culminate in production facilities located across the region through integrated production systems. Shares of both national and regional companies would be quoted on our stock exchanges as capital moves without hindrance across national boundaries to underwrite investment in joint ventures and projects in any part of our region through a South Asian Development Bank.

6. Addressing LDCs' Concerns
However, economic cooperation and trade would not produce tangible results unless the concerns of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are genuinely addressed, the negative-list is minimized, tariffs are substantially brought down and non-tariff and para-tariff barriers lifted, the economies are gradually opened up with a recourse to investment-trade linkage that takes care of trade deficits between partners through investment flows and capital account, vertical and horizontal integration of industries that benefits from relative advantages and economies of scale. The time frame envisaged in the agreement on SAFTA must be strictly adhered to.

7. South Asian Cooperative Security
We resolve to get out of the straitjacket of enmity, overcome obsession with over-demanding militaristic security paradigms and look beyond the traditional notions of security and focus on an integrated South Asian Cooperative Security that recognizes interdependence and mutuality of interests. The states ought to act in their enlightened self-interest to resolve their conflicts and differences through peaceful means and to the mutual benefit of our peoples. The choice is often, erroneously, posed between regional cooperation and conflict resolution. We urge all our states to simultaneously move forward to address long-standing political disputes through peaceful means. The main obstacle to regional cooperation and economic integration remains political and strategic. Therefore, we vow to be courageous, flexible and consistent to help resolve interstate and intrastate conflicts and dismantle political barriers to regional economic takeoff.

Countering the widespread threat of terrorism, the SAARC countries must implement the current protocol for cooperation against terrorism and bring it in line with the international norms. The regional efforts against terrorism must also include measures to combat the spread of small arms and light weapons, narcotics trafficking, smuggling, organized crimes and criminal mafias. This will require exchanges and interaction between the national intelligence and security agencies with their counterparts across the border and greater interaction between the armed forces and military establishments in the region.

The conference strongly emphasizes the principle that there can be no intervention in the internal affairs of any nation in the subcontinent. Yet, given the implications of internal conflicts for regional security as a whole, the SAARC must pay greater attention to the relationship between internal and regional security. It calls on both parties to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka to take immediate steps towards a revival of the stalled peace process and creation of an interim administration in the Tamil-dominated regions while securing integrity of the country and the rights of minorities there.

Without prejudice to the current positions of the SAARC governments on amending the SAARC charter, the conference calls upon the SAARC to initiate a study on mechanisms for cooperative security in the region.

Advancing the SAARC charter, the conference welcomes the decision, in principle, of the Islamabad SAARC summit to establish procedures for cooperation with other countries and organizations. Given the increasing interdependence among regions, cooperation with neighboring countries, such as China, Afghanistan and Myanmar and Central Asia, and other regional organizations, it is an essential future activity for SAARC.

The Group on Nuclear Stabilization Reommends
The existence of nuclear weapons in South Asia remains an issue of major concern for the peoples and region's security analysts. Given Indo-Pak history of constant tensions and intermittent crises, we are concerned about the likelihood of a crisis spiralling out of control and eventually leading to a nuclear conflict. While we find the South Asian nuclear regime to be relatively stable in peace time, there is indeed nuclear instability induced into the nuclear equation in time of crises. This is borne out of an analysis of the 1999 and 2002 crises between India and Pakistan. Moreover, since one of the adversaries, Pakistan, inherently links nuclear escalation to conventional asymmetry, the growing asymmetry in conventional arms between Pakistan and India could also lead to a lowering of the nuclear thresholds in terms of South Asian crises. Finally, while the mutual ambiguity of the nuclear regime in South Asia contributes to stability on some counts, it does not allow the adversaries to make informed decisions in times of crises and can thus lead to instability.

Given the above, the recommendations of the group include:
Recognizing that much of the tensions are a result of outstanding disputes, we recommend that Pakistan and India must continue dialogue on these issues and continue on the overall drive towards CBMs through the existing normalization process. With regard to nuclear weapons, Pakistan and India should mutually initiate a global drive towards disarmament. The starting point should be a declaration that transforms South Asia into a nuclear weapons free zone. More specifically, the two sides could focus on the following:

a) Declaring a bilateral ban on nuclear testing through an agreement;
b) Ceasing the production of all fissile material (agreement);
c) Signing a non-deployment agreement, agreeing that weapon systems will not be mated or deployed (agreement);
d) Signing an agreement no to pre-empt nuclear installations of the adversary;
e) Establishing of NRRCs but with a legally binding agreement that such channels will remain open during crises;
f) Enhancing command and control structures to eliminate the likelihood of an accidental or unauthorized nuclear conflict.

The Group on Conflict Resolution Mechanism Proposes:
Conflicts in South Asia are passing through a critical phase of transformation which requires a proper understanding, interpretation and information about issues which cause conflicts. For a long period of time, South Asia has perceived conflicts through a zero-sum perspective but the process of gradual conflict transformation is taking place in the region which may help the formulation of conflict resolution mechanism.

Recommendations:
a) Need for proper conceptualization and understanding of conflicts and their interpretations in a rational manner. Therefore, it is recommended to establish conflict resolution centers and institutes at the governmental and non-governmental levels so as to unleash the process of meaningful research in the field of conflict resolution. It is also recommended to design academic curricula on conflict resolution so as to create a better awareness among the people of South Asia about the need for a conflict resolution process. Both print and electronic media of South Asia can play a plausible role for creating proper conditions for conflict resolution process;
b) Involvement of stake holders and allow them the space to craft out alternative conflict resolution mechanism. Stakeholders must have political will for conflict resolution and women should be made an integral part of this mechanism. The composite dialogue going on between India and Pakistan should also focus on the practicable conflict resolution strategy as far as contentious issues are concerned;
c) State structures and their proponents should also be influenced because states are often the creators, promoters and sustainers of conflict;
d) There should be SAARC conventions on minority and water rights' charters and the existing human rights' charter of SAARC needs to be strengthened and properly implemented.

8. South Asian Human Security
Beyond cooperative security, South Asian nations must ultimately move towards South Asian Human Security by placing people -- their wellbeing and rights to peaceful life and development -- at the centre of security concerns, rather than intensifying the arms race. To include the excluded, governments of South Asia should take concrete steps to implement the SAARC Social Charter and give priority to poverty eradication by implementing ISACPA Report on Poverty Alleviation and meeting the Millennium Development Goals. This can be done by increased investment, enhanced economic growth and development, which do not necessarily translate into poverty alleviation unless structured to address the root-causes of poverty and give priority to human resource development, employment generation and empowerment of the dispossessed, women and the poor, in particular.

9. South Asian Parliament
The South Asian region emerged out of decolonization as a result of the drawing of political boundaries with sovereignty attributes forming new states. The political boundaries have further been reinforced through divergent strategies of state and nation building, reinterpretations of history and religion, and due to the Cold-War strategic divides. In the context of these reinforced boundaries and divisions, it may sound imprudent and even unrealistic to talk of political integration in the region. However, over the past decades, the imperatives of globalization, end of the cold war and rising popular aspirations in each of the South Asian states have brought about qualitative changes in the regional perceptions. Processes like SAARC have created institutions and generated impulses under which people are visualizing the prospects of establishing a South Asian community. Regional integration should and will take place within the framework of community building, not by conceiving or attempting erosion of state sovereignties or identities. The examples of SAFMA's initiative towards South Asian parliament and the collective and individual attempts in India and Pakistan to re-write history text books are indicative of growing popular pressure in favour of community building.

The SAPANA Group decided to mobilise country-based but comparative studies, that address the question of state building strategies, nationalism, status of minorities within and otherwise in the context of human rights and democratic polices. Studies will also take note of the professional engagements like that of Chamber of Commerce and industries, media, lawyers, academics, doctors and human rights activists across the board initiated and institutionalised within or outside the SAARC framework. The basic strategy to be adopted towards community building through integration will be to encourage institution building and engagements. Patterns of sub-regional cooperation amongst the parts of the states and societies in South Asian, linkages among parliamentarian, political parties, scholars and analysts, as well as transport and communication networks across the borders driven by popular pressures present concrete examples of such strategy. The conclusions of the studies will then be put in a perspective to map out the properties of community building through integration.

The Group on South Asian Political Integration Recommends:
The participants overwhelmingly endorsed the view to initiate a process of moving towards the creation of an institutional interactive mechanism for parliamentarians of South Asia keeping in mind the concept of a South Asian Parliament. A full fledged SAP may take a decade or two, but it is time to initiate moves in that direction. To begin with, the conference proposes: a) Creation of an Intra-Parliamentary Union in South Asia; b) SAARC may in principle agree to create a South Asian Parliament and appoint a group of experts, responsible before the SAARC Speakers Forum, to prepare a comprehensive report and a timeframe to establish it in stages and through an evolutionary process; c) The SAARC Speakers Forum should be activated and; d) To begin with, SAP may be set up as a deliberative and consultative body, not as a legislative body, so as to create regional opinion on and build regional pressures on the issues pending for implementation at the SAARC level. This deliberative body may work within the SAARC agenda. By ultimately creating a South Asian Parliament, the evolution of a regional South Asian identity, without in any sense compromising on or conflicting with respective national identities and sovereignty of nation-states of the region.

The Group on Re-writing History Recommends:
There is very little shared knowledge of how history is researched, written and taught in each of the countries of South Asia. Furthermore, there is inadequate recognition or appreciation of the shared past of this region. Despite this lack of knowledge about the past, references to and the use of history as a resource in a variety of political debates has only increased, particularly for the promotion of communalism, fundamentalism, casteism, regional and linguistic chauvinism. This makes it more difficult to produce trans-national historical perspectives.

The close link between the state and historical research and textbook production has had ambiguous and conflicting consequences for developing a sense of the past. Historical research and analysis is still dependent on Western categories and tools of analysis. There is need to develop more indigenous categories.

Recommendations
The efforts at working out a common history of South Asia are viable. Even though there may be fundamental differences in perspective, it is possible to identify and work on common themes. Rather than focusing on national histories, themes that are shared by all the countries of South Asian countries should be identified and worked upon.

Furthermore, a perspective on history that emphasizes the people, and neither fights shy of acknowledging historical injustices of caste, region, religion, gender, (to take some examples) nor glorifies them is an urgent imperative.

We believe that such histories can help evolve a broader framework through stronger institutional linkages between groups of professional historians in South Asia. Such an engagement with the past will make a richer, fuller sense of the past possible, and have a great impact on society and the polity today and in the future.

The Group on Religious Extremism and Minorities Recommends:
Both minority persecution and ghettoisation have to be countered. There is still a major deficit in terms of information and understanding about events across the region even among those actively engaged with various human rights causes.

Recommendations:
1. A standing body charged with responsibility to study and compose the institutional frameworks that seek to empower minorities across the region. Where institutional support is absent it should be highlighted.
2. The political position, strategies and rhetoric employed by the participants in the political process be monitored in order to identify issues that may impact minorities.
3. Intellectual tendencies and debates within discourses generated by the minorities about their situation those that promote minority empowerment be highlighted.

10. South Asian Human Rights Code
It is imperative for the South Asian countries to agree to and set up institutions under the Paris Principles and purposefully set about creating the required mechanisms to implement all internationally recognized fundamental human, civil and democratic rights. The Proposed Draft on Human Rights Code for South Asia presented before the South Asian Parliament's Conference, convened by SAFMA, will be circulated among the human rights bodies of the region and Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and other human rights bodies in the region will be requested to develop broader understanding among the major stakeholders to develop a regional framework at the level of SAARC and its member countries.

11. People to People Contact
The prevailing barriers to cross-border movements make neither commercial nor logistical sense and originate in the pathologies of interstate, as well as domestic, politics. There is an urgent need to allow greater interaction among the policy-makers, parliamentarians, businessmen, media practitioners, professionals, youth and the leaders of civil society. To enable it to happen, it is necessary that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who have the most restrictive visa regimes, drastically revise their visa policy and remove impediments to free movement of people. All-country visas may be granted at separate South Asian counters on arrival at the airports and on all border-crossings.

12. South Asian Information Society
To overcome information deficit in the region, it is essential that all restrictions on access to and free flow of information are removed forthwith and media persons and products are allowed free movement across frontiers. In this regard, SAFMA's Protocols on 'Free Movement of Media Persons and Media Products' and 'Freedom of Information' must be adopted by the national legislatures/governments and the SAARC. To ensure the citizens' right to know, we support SAFMA's Protocol on Freedom of Information. The media, on their part, should rise above national divides, avoid demonization and give special attention to the coverage of the countries of South Asia that remain under-reported. Given the rising numbers of South Asian Cyber citizenry, there is an urgent need to upgrade, integrate and facilitate cyber connectivity and accessibility.

13. Culture and Tourism
The scope of collaboration in the sphere of culture, tourism, sports, education, health, research, human resource development and environment is infinite. At the level of SAARC, measures should be taken to promote cultural exchanges, tourism, health and education services and research in all fields.

14. Promotion of humanities. Private initiatives and those of universities should be encouraged by the authorities to introduce country studies, invite faculties from the neighbourhood, exchange students, promote humanities and physical sciences through South Asian congresses and undertake a non-discriminatory portrayal of history. Visa restrictions and tedious process for academics, experts and scholars must be dispensed with.

15. Women's Concerns
Acknowledging the inadequate attention to and focus on redressing the marginalization and invisibility of women at all levels of national and regional policy-making; and the disproportionately high burden of poverty that women face in South Asia; SAPANA resolves to work towards gender equality and gender justice in all aspects of our work in the process as well as the substance; and exhort all the South Asian governments to acknowledge and rectify the glaring gender inequalities especially the feminization of poverty.
16. South Asian Policy Analysis (SAPANA) Network:
The participants of South Asian Journal conference have agreed to form South Asian Policy Analysis (SAPANA) Network that will pursue virtual research and develop networking among various independent research groups and scholars across the region to promote free and pro-people thinking and a course of development that addresses the concerns of the people, in a wholist and sustainable framework.

The objective and purpose of SAPANA will be to redress the shortcomings found in existing Think Tanks and research organisations. Firstly, it is proposed that the main purpose and objective of SAPANA will be to liaise with policy makers and with governments in separate countries and in South Asia as a whole. The research undertaken by SAPANA, while following all the principles of objectivity and rigour, will serve as a platform for policy dialogue and intervention.

SAPANA has a great advantage over all existing Think Tanks and similar institutions, in that it is part of the Free Media Foundation and will work closely with the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA). This proximity will allow SAPANA's research output to be available in the public arena through the media. This ability to disseminate extensively will be one of the major advantages SAPANA will have over other institutions.

SAPANA will focus on multidimensional and multi-thematic interventions rather than specialise in one particular area. Because of the already existing network of the Free Media Foundation and SAFMA, SAPANA is being perceived as a sort of a 'virtual' institution. Unlike most research organisations and Think Tanks, for the first few years, it will not employ scholars and academics, but will out-source research. Because of its 'virtual' nature, not constrained by the abilities of an in-house research staff, SAPANA will have access to the best scholars working on South Asia who will be hired on short term contracts for specific purposes. Moreover, SAPANA will also be able to design research themes of a more topical and immediate nature requesting scholars to respond quickly. Its flexibility will be one of its many strengths. The participants appreciated South Asian Journal and SAFMA for taking this timely initiative. The participants of First SAPANA Conference agreed to meet again within two years to pursue their objectives and shared goals.
South Asian Policy Analysis Network
(SAPANA)
Envisioning A New South Asia
Islamabad: April 30, 2006

Leading experts, academics, and scholars from the member countries of SAARC, representing different disciplines and sectors, met at the South Asian Journal Conference "Envisioning South Asia", facilitated by SAFMA on April 29-30, 2006, in Islamabad, Pakistan. They deliberated upon and initiated a process of evolving a holistic and integrated South Asian Vision by and for South Asians and a strategic understanding on meeting the challenges of the 21st century and globalisation and ushering in a new era of South Asian fraternal, equitable and collective partnership:

While keeping the demands of an integrated and a wholist approach, the SAPANA Research Groups have agreed on the identification of problems in various areas and have made initial recommendations:

f. The water related sectors have the great opportunity for the knowledge sharing in the technical and managerial fields.

The following steps to be taken urgently to address the above concern: