Dhaka, April 18 -- Why has SAARC been paralyzed? India's withdrawal from the SAARC summit which was to be held in Pakistan in 2016 was the second instance of Delhi paralyzing the regional forum by unilaterally withdrawing from the apex summit of South Asian leaders. India previously withdrew from a SAARC summit which was planned to be hosted by Bangladesh in 2005, though the meeting eventually went ahead in Dhaka. For India, the SAARC process has become leverage to pressure Pakistan for what Delhi sees as Islamabad's sponsorship of proxy war in the Kashmir Valley. The fall of the Afghan republic to the Taliban further complicated the prospect of reviving SAARC due to Afghanistan's stagnant membership of the bloc.

According to former Bang...