The newly-appointed Secretary- General of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed of Maldives, assumed office at the SAARC Secretariat in the Nepali capital Kathmandu on Wednesday.
Upon nomination by the Government of Maldives, the 33rd session of the SAARC Council of Ministers held in Thimphu on Feb. 8-9, 2011 had appointed Saeed to lead SAARC., Xinhua reported.
A former Attorney General of the Republic of Maldives and a former parliamentarian, Ms. Saeed is the tenth secretary-general of SAARC and the first woman to occupy this prestigious position.
She was serving as Maldivian Government's Envoy for South Asia just prior to assuming her new assignment in Kathmandu. She holds a Master's Degree in Law from the Graduate School of Law and Politics, Osaka University, Japan.
Launched in December 1985, SAARC comprises of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.