The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established in Dhaka on 8 December 1985. Originally there were 7 members in the SAARC. Afghanistan became the 8th member of the SAARC organisation in the summit held in the Dhaka in November 2005. Currently there are 8 members in the SAARC organisation i.e. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
SAARC member comprises 21% of the world's population, 3% of the world's area, and 3.8% (US$2.9 trillion) of the global economy, as on 2015. The Secretariat of the Association was set up in Kathmandu on 17 January 1987.
From the 1985 till date there have been 13 Secretaries-General of the SAARC. There are just two Indians i.e. Kant Kishore Bhargava and Sheel Kant Sharma are the only Indians who has been at the post of Secretaries-General of the SAARC.
Now let’s see the list of Secretaries-General of the SAARC;
| Name | Country | Tenure |
| 1. Abul Ahsan | Bangladesh | 16 January 1985 to 15 October 1989 |
| 2. Kant Kishore Bhargava | India | 17 October 1989 to 31 December 1991 |
| 3. Ibrahim Hussein Zaki | Maldives | 1January 1992 to 31 December 1993 |
| 4. Yadav Kant Silwal | Nepal | 1 January 1994 to 31 December 1995 |
| 5. Naeem U. Hasan | Pakistan | 1 January 1996 to 31 December 1998 |
| 6. Nihal Rodrigo | Sri Lanka | 1 January 1999 to 10 January 2002 |
| 7. Q. A. M. A. Rahim | Bangladesh | 11 January 2002 to 28 February 2005 |
| 8. Chenkyab Dorji | Bhutan | 1 March 2005 to 29 February 2008 |
| 9. Sheel Kant Sharma | India | 1 March 2008 to 28 February 2011 |
| 10. Fathimath Dhiyana Saeed | Maldives | 1 March 2011 to 11 March 2012 |
| 11. Ahmed Saleem | Maldives | 12 March 2012 to 28 February 2014 |
| 12. Arjun Bahadur Thapa | Nepal | 1 March 2014 to 28 February 2017 |
| 13. Amjad Hussain B Sial | Pakistan | 1 March 2017 to present |
From the above table it can be inferred that the Abul Ahsan of the Bangladesh was the first secretary general of SAARC. Out of 8 SAARC members; Maldives is the only country whose 3 peoples have served as the secretary general of SAARC.
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