SAARC Secretary General Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed's resignation accepted

KATHMANDU: The resignation of Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed, the Secretary General of SAARC, has been accepted by the Kathmandu-based secretariat of the eight- member regional organisation, according to sources here today.

Maldivian national Saeed, the first woman secretary general of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), quit amid controversy over her alleged involvement in domestic politcs of the Maldives.

Saeed's resignation was accepted today, according to sources at the SAARC secretariat.

She assumed the office on March 1, 2011 and her tenure was supposed to end only towards the end of February 2014.

The resignation comes after the Maldives government expressed outrage over her remarks against the arrest of the country´s Criminal Court Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed.

"I did not interfere with any internal affairs of the Maldives and I will submit my resignation," she was quoted as saying in the media.

Saeed handed her resignation letter yesterday to Maldivian Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem, who is the current chair of SAARC Ministers Council.

The Maldives government has circulated the decision to accept her resignation to all the seven member states of the SAARC who need to endorse the move.

Maldives government will name a new secretary general for the remaining three year terms, which again needs to be endorsed by the SAARC Council of Ministers.'

This is the first time a SAARC secretary general resigned prior to the expiry of terms since the founding of the regional body consisting of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1985. Later, Afghanistan joined SAARC as its eighth member.