Short answers, pulled from the story.
SAARC was founded on the 8th of December 1985 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The first summit was hosted by President Hussain Ershad of Bangladesh and was attended by leaders including Rajiv Gandhi of India, President Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan, and King Birendra Shah of Nepal.
The 19th SAARC Summit, scheduled for November 2016 in Islamabad, was cancelled after India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Afghanistan withdrew in response to the Uri attack by the Pakistani militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed. It was the first time four member states had simultaneously boycotted a summit, and no replacement has been scheduled.
SAARC has eight full member states: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The organization also has nine observer states, including Australia, China, the European Union, Iran, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.
SAFTA is a trade liberalization agreement signed on the 6th of January 2004 at the Twelfth SAARC Summit in Islamabad, which entered into force on the 1st of January 2006. Despite the agreement, intra-SAARC trade amounts to just over 1% of the bloc's combined GDP, compared to 10% for ASEAN. The Asian Development Bank estimated the region misses roughly $14 billion in annual agricultural export potential.
President Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh was the primary architect of SAARC, writing personal letters to South Asian leaders in the late 1970s and advocating for regional cooperation after Bangladesh's failed attempt to join ASEAN. The SAARC Award has been given only once, posthumously to Rahman, in recognition of his founding role.
The SAARC Secretariat is located in Kathmandu, Nepal. It was established on the 16th of January 1987 and inaugurated by King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah of Nepal.