Senior Pakistani diplomat Amjad Sial assumed the office of secretary general of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) on Wednesday, becoming the 13th secretary general of the regional body established in 1985.

Sial's appointment comes amid internal rifts as India attempted to block his nomination on 'procedural grounds' although his nomination at the Saarc Council of Ministers in Pokhara, Nepal, in March 2016 was endorsed by all member states.

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The newly appointed secretary general replaced Nepal's Arjun Bahadur Thapa whose three-year term as the Saarc chief ended on Tuesday.

This is Pakistan's second time leading Saarc since 1996.

A career diplomat, Sial has, over the course of his 33-year career, served as Pakistan's ambassador to Tajikistan from 2011-2014, and was also an alternate permanent representative at Pakistan's Mission to the United Nations.

Prior to joining Saarc, Sial served as special secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

'Delaying tactics'

India's position on the matter was that Sial's nomination had to be ratified by the Council of Ministers meeting in Islamabad, which could not happen due to postponement of the summit after India and several of its regional allies pulled out of the meeting.

Pakistani officials, meanwhile, had accused India of employing "delaying tactics".

Relations between Islamabad and New Delhi nosedived last year due to the aggravating situation in India-held Kashmir. India later accused a Pakistan-based group of attacking one of its military camps in Uri and also withdrew from the summit being hosted by Pakistan in November on the pretext of "cross-border terrorist attacks".

The regional organisation has long been held hostage to the intense Pak-India rivalry although its charter explicitly disallows bringing regional disputes to the forum.

Indian leadership does not unequivocally say it, but a sub-regional transport agreement and statements by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicate that India is working towards a regional bloc minus Pakistan. Furthermore, by isolating Pakistan, India is trying to gain maximum leverage and influence in the region.

Pakistan, besides its large territorial size, has been an active member of Saarc and is currently contributing 24 per cent of the secretariat’s budget.

Adviser to the PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz in his meeting with outgoing Saarc Secretary General Thapa last week said India impeded the Saarc process and violated the spirit of the Saarc Charter.