KARACHI - South Asian People's Assembly (SAPA) has expressed their concern over the declaration of Saarc about terrorism, poverty alleviation and welfare of the people, and termed it against the will of the people of this region. Saarc has disappointed the people making the declaration, which failed to recognise the glorious struggle of the people of Nepal, although the summit was held after the end of monarchy in Nepal. These views were expressed by Director of PILER Karamat Ali and Iqbal Haider, Co-Chairman of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in a joint press conference held on Tuesday at Karachi press club. However, Sharafat Ali of PILER, Zulfiqar Ali Potha of Sindh Democratic Forum, Hussain Bakhsh Tebo and others were also present at the occasion. They said that the representatives of Saarc countries had failed to take any initiative for the betterment of the people of this region on the summit. They said that it was a disappointing document and it failed to meet the expectations of the peoples of South Asia. They said that the declaration was not more than a pack of rhetoric. It was not people-centric as claimed by its authors, as it did not give a specific time frame for achieving Saarc development goals. As such, it cannot achieve its proclaimed objective of "robust partnership for growth for the peoples of South Asia." The declaration was also disappointing as it failed to acknowledge the existence of conflicts between different countries and within different regions of a country and giving a call for resolving of all conflicts through dialogue by identifying and addressing the root causes and taking firm measures for ending militarisation and arms race in the region. They also expressed that all the South Asian states are known to be negatively interfering in each other's affairs. Instead of strengthening each other, these governments have been engaged in covert and overt actions to weaken each other; particularly their intelligence agencies are known to be instrumental in this regard. They said South Asian People's Assembly emphasised upon SAARC countries to commit to a no-war pact and declare the region as nuclear-free by reducing defence budget and de-militarising the region. Free movement of peoples in the region or in other words a visa-free South Asia, restoration of rail, road and sea links, resolution of all conflicts in the region, operationalisation of food sovereignty through building alliances of women, peasants and agriculture labour, recognising fishermen rights to fish in territorial waters were sought by the assembly. "Victims of human trafficking specially women and children must be protected, rights of workers should be ensured as per international laws and South Asian Tribunal of Justice to address human rights violations should be set up", they further said.