Mahara leaving for Pakistan

Kathmandu, August 22

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara is leaving for Islamabad, Pakistan to attend a SAARC Finance Ministerial meeting to be held on August 25 and 26.

Mahara will leave for Islamabad tomorrow and is scheduled to return home on Saturday, according to Finance Minister Mahara’s Information Specialist Tribhuvan Paudel.

He will address the ministerial meeting on Friday. Nepal is the incumbent chair of the eight member South Asian bloc of which Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are members.

The meeting is expected to find ways and means to accelerate the process of regional cooperation for South Asian Free Trade Agreement, an ambitious regional project, which is yet to be put into action. Other aspects of financial cooperation will also figure during the meeting.

Mahara’s delegation comprises Finance Ministry Joint-secretary Baikuntha Aryal and officials from the Embassy of Nepal in Pakistan.

As a special envoy of PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Mahara had returned from a four-day visit to China last week.