The first conference of the People’s South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has agreed to form a SAARC parliamentary forum to formulate alternative policies to resolve the problems of the SAARC countries.

Issuing a declaration on Saturday, the conference has decided to set up office of the forum, give continuity to the meeting of the Front and making it effective in upcoming years.

Stating that the SAARC, which was established in 1983, failed to effectively address the people’s agendas, the People’s SAARC conference has urged the lawmakers to co-work with the civil society to meet the common agendas of rule of law, constitutional supremacy, inclusion, human rights and other issues.

Speaker of the interim legislature, Subash Chandra Nemwang expressed the belief that the parliamentary forum will be a platform to discuss the problems of South Asian people and seek the solution.

Other lawmakers of the SAARC countries also stressed the need of optimum utilization of resources of SAARC countries, pressurise the governments to address people’s demands among others.

The People’s SAARC conference discussed the issues of democracy, sustainable peace, human rights, natural resource management and the issues of deprived communities and Indigenous Nationalities.

Over 500 representatives of civil society, peasants, workers, marginalised people, people from deprived communities and lawmakers of all eight member countries participated in the conference.