New Delhi, May 12: Pakistan has indicated that it would pay up the $7.85 million (Rs 50 crore) it owes as contribution to the South Asia University seven years after the varsity started classes, following threats that the institute could terminate Islamabad's participation in the region's marquee education project.
The message from Pakistan to the university comes amid heightened tensions between the neighbours and Islamabad's refusal to take part in another South Asian initiative: a satellite India launched last week to assist six other neighbours.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) had in 2008 decided to jointly set up a regional university as a platform for students, teachers and researchers from the eight member countries to better understand each other by studying and working together.
Unlike Prime Minister Narendra Modi's offer of a Saarc satellite, which India alone has funded, the university was from the start envisaged as a project jointly funded by all the grouping's members, their contributions determined by the relative size of their economies.
Pakistan has repeatedly insisted it wants to remain a part of the university. But while every other country has contributed its annual share, Pakistan has not paid anything for the project yet.
It took a threat that its membership could be terminated for Pakistan to agree to pay its dues. "The government of Pakistan has recently responded formally on this matter by saying that efforts are under way to expedite the payment," the Indian foreign office has told Parliament.
The warnings to Pakistan, officials said, included a reminder to Islamabad at the last governing board meeting of the university on November 28, 2016, where it was told to remit its dues within three months - or face a "review" of its participation.
Pakistan still did not commit to paying. At the 53rd meeting of the Saarc programming committee in Kathmandu on February 1, India again articulated its concerns over Pakistan's refusal to pay up.
It was then, officials said, that Pakistan wrote to the university, hosted by India, confirming that it plans to make the payment soon.
India had contributed $60.3 million to the project, by far the largest share from among the Saarc nations. Pakistan's share was expected to be the second highest. Bangladesh has contributed $4.92 million, Sri Lanka $2.95 million, Nepal $2.94 million, Afghanistan and Bhutan $2.3 million each, and the Maldives $1.84 million.
The South Asian University, which operates out of Akbar Bhavan in New Delhi's Chanakyapuri, is expected to shift to a permanent campus on the outskirts of Delhi once a dispute over land earmarked for the project is settled.
Diplomat in spot
An Indian diplomat had to apologise after he was caught taking photos inside Islamabad High Court during the hearing of a case filed by a Pakistani man accused of forcing an Indian woman into marriage at gunpoint, PTI said, quoting a Pakistan media report. The cellphone of Piyush Singh, first secretary at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was confiscated and he was ordered to apologise for violating court decorum after he took three photos.
