Pakistan has taken the responsibility of Secretary-General post of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for the second time on Wednesday.

This is the 13th time that Pakistan took the responsibility of the post.

Amjad Hussain B. Sial, a special secretary at Foreign Service of Pakistan, has been named as the new secretary general of the Saarc—a regional forum of eight South Asian countries.

In 1996, Naeem U. Hasan from Pakistan had served as the sixth secretary-general of the Saarc.

Sial assumed the post on March 1 (Wednesday), as per the tradition of the Saarc.

Nepal’s Arjun Bahadur Thapa, the incumbent secretary-general of the Saarc, term had  ended on Tuesday.

Sial, who has 33 years of work experience in Pakistan's foreign service, had served as the director in the Saarc Secretariat in Kathmandu from 2003 to 2006.

The Saarc secretary-general tenure is of three years.