SAARC Arbitration Council Governing Board meets in Colombo

The 8th Governing Board (GB) meeting of SAARC Arbitration Council (SARCO) was held at the Renuka City Hotel, Colombo on 21 and 22 September. Delegates from all eight Member States participated in the meeting. Secretary General of SAARC was represented by Rishfa Rasheed, Director (Social Affairs) of the SAARC Secretariat. 

The meeting was chaired by Shaikh Sarfraz, Additional Legal Draftsman/Joint Secretary of Ministry of Law and Justice, Islamabad, Pakistan. The meeting deliberated on the financial and administrative matters referred to them. The Governing Board also considered the budget of the Council proposed by its Secretariat for 2018 and recommended with the necessary amendments to the Programming Committee of SAARC.

Director General Thusantha Wijemanna briefed the Governing Board with the activities carried out during the past year while presenting his report to the meeting.

The GB expressed its appreciation with regard to performance of SARCO and commended the staff for their hard work done in developing profile of the institution.

In keeping with the SAARC practice all decisions at the meeting were unanimous.

The meeting was attended by Zahidullah Jalali of Afghanistan Director General designate to SARCO, Maleka Parveen (Counsellor, High Commission for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Colombo), Karma Yeshey (Registrar of Companies, Ministry of Economic Affairs Thimphu) Bhutan, Uma Sekhar (Joint Secretary Ministry of External Affairs New Delhi) India, Fathimath Haleem (Solicitor General, Attorney General ‘s Office Male) Maldives, Toyanath Adhikari (Joint Secretary ,Ministry of Law ,Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Kathmandu)  Nepal, Shaikh Sarfraz Ahmed (Additional Draftsman/Joint Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice) Pakistan, Dr. Zafar Iqbal (Director SAARC, Ministry of Foreign Affairs) Pakistan, and C.A.H.M. Wijeratne (Director General/Legal Advisor, Ministry of External Affairs) Sri Lanka.