Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudary Nisar Ali Khan will not attend the sixth meeting of the SAARC home or interior ministers that will get under way in Kathmandu Wednesday.
Top diplomatic sources confirmed to IANS that Nisar Ali Khan has cancelled his visit owing to the devastating floods in the country's Punjab province.
Apart from the home ministers of the SAARC countries, home secretaries and immigration officials will also be attending the meeting.
The Indian delegation will be led by union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Over a million people have been affected and more than 275 people were killed in the recent floods in Pakistan's Punjab.
"We have the worst ever floods in Panjab and just today we got a confirmation through our ministry of foreign affairs that home minister (Nisar Ali) Khan is not visiting Kathmandu to attend the meeting. He needs to be more engaged in Punjab, so Interior Secretary Shahid Khan will be attending the meeting," a diplomat privy to the meeting said.
According to the schedule, immigration Officials from SAARC member countries are meeting Wednesday followed by a SAARC home secretary-level meeting Thursday, according to Nepal's ministry of home affairs.
Issues like suppression of terrorism, maritime security, piracy, narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, combating corruption, and cyber crimes will be discussed threadbare at the ministerial-level and official-level meetings of the law enforcement authorities of the SAARC countries.
Other issues to be discussed at the conference include mutual assistance in criminal matters, trafficking in women and children, and promotion of child welfare in South Asia, officials said.
"The meeting will reinforce the past accord in priority and come up with a common commitment for suppression of terrorism in the region, trafficking of drugs and narcotics, corruption, cyber crime, human trafficking," said a home ministry statement.
(Anil Giri can be contacted at girianil@gmail.com)
