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PM Sharif thanks Saudi crown prince for ‘comprehensive’ Pakistan investment program

PM Sharif thanks Saudi crown prince for ‘comprehensive’ Pakistan investment program
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (left) meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on April 29, 2024. (Saudi Press Agency)
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Updated 30 April 2024
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PM Sharif thanks Saudi crown prince for ‘comprehensive’ Pakistan investment program

PM Sharif thanks Saudi crown prince for ‘comprehensive’ Pakistan investment program
  • Pakistani PM meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during visit to Riyadh for World Economic Forum meeting 
  • Kingdom’s foreign minister visited Pakistan this month to push forward previously agreed investment deals, strengthen cooperation
Updated 30 April 2024
Shahjahan Khurram
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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday to discuss matters of mutual interest and regional developments, thanking him for a “comprehensive” program presented by Saudi ministers regarding investment in Pakistan, Sharif’s office said on Monday. 

Sharif has held meetings with Saudi officials and ministers since he arrived in Riyadh on Saturday to attend a two-day World Economic Forum (WEF) special meeting on energy, collaboration, and health. His visit to the Kingdom follows Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan’s trip to Pakistan in mid-April with a high-level delegation. The Saudi foreign minister’s visit was aimed at strengthening bilateral economic cooperation and pushing forward previously agreed investment deals. Pakistan has said it pitched investment projects worth $30 billion to Riyadh during Prince Faisal’s visit.

In videos and pictures shared by Sharif’s office, the two leaders can be seen interacting with each other in the presence of their teams. Sharif thanked the Saudi crown prince for sending the high-level delegation to Pakistan and issuing directions for more Saudi delegations to visit the country “to promote investment,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said. 

“The Prime Minister expressed gratitude to the Crown Prince for the hospitality during his visit to Saudi Arabia and for a comprehensive program presented by Saudi Ministers regarding investment in Pakistan,” the PMO said. 




Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (center left) meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (center right) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on April 29, 2024. (Saudi Press Agency)

The statement added that both leaders agreed to further promote cooperation in different sectors as they discussed areas of mutual interest and expressed satisfaction over their meeting in Makkah earlier this month. 

“The situation in Gaza was also discussed in the meeting,” the PMO said. “The Prime Minister reiterated the invitation to the Saudi Crown Prince to visit Pakistan.”

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong trade, defense and cultural ties. The Kingdom is home to over 2.7 million Pakistani expatriates and serves as the top source of remittances to the cash-strapped South Asian country.

Both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been closely working to increase bilateral trade and investment deals, and the Kingdom recently reaffirmed its commitment to expedite an investment package worth $5 billion.

Pakistan set up the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a hybrid civil-military body, in June 2023 to attract international investments mainly from Gulf countries. The SIFC has identified mining, agriculture, energy and information technology as some of the key sectors where it hopes to attract foreign funding. 

Cash-strapped Pakistan desperately needs to shore up its foreign reserves and signal to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it can continue to meet requirements for foreign financing that has been a key demand in previous bailout packages. 

Saudi Arabia has often come to Pakistan’s aid in the past, regularly providing it oil on deferred payments and offering direct financial support to help stabilize its economy and shore up its forex reserves.

Topics: Pakistan Saudi Ties

Pakistan lists SCO summit attendees, excluding Afghanistan, ahead of high-profile event

Pakistan lists SCO summit attendees, excluding Afghanistan, ahead of high-profile event
Updated 23 sec ago
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Pakistan lists SCO summit attendees, excluding Afghanistan, ahead of high-profile event

Pakistan lists SCO summit attendees, excluding Afghanistan, ahead of high-profile event
  • Afghanistan holds the SCO observer status that has reportedly remained inactive since Taliban’s 2021 takeover
  • Pakistan has made extensive preparations for the summit, focusing on Islamabad’s security and beautification
Updated 23 sec ago
SAIMA SHABBIR

ISLAMABAD: The foreign office of Pakistan released the names of countries attending the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), scheduled for October 15-16 in Islamabad, notably excluding Afghanistan, while key member states like China, Russia and India are set to attend.
Afghanistan is not a full SCO member but holds observer status, which has reportedly remained inactive since September 2021, following the Taliban takeover.
Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan have severely deteriorated for more than a year over the issue of cross-border militancy, with officials in Islamabad repeatedly accusing the Taliban-led government of “facilitating” armed groups responsible for attacks on Pakistani soil, an allegation denied by Kabul.
Tensions further escalated last year when Pakistan decided to expel Afghan refugees, citing national security concerns and the alleged involvement of some refugees in militancy and crime.
“Pakistan will be hosting the Twenty-third meeting of the Council of the Heads of Government (CHG) of the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) from 15 to 16 October 2024 in Islamabad,” the foreign office said in a brief curtain raiser.
“SCO member States will be represented by the Prime Ministers of China, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as the First Vice President of Iran and External Affairs Minister of India,” it added. “Prime Minister of Mongolia (Observer State) and Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Foreign Ministers of Turkmenistan (Special Guest) will also participate in the meeting.”
The foreign office said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will preside over the SCO meeting in his capacity of the current chair of the CHG.
He will also hold important bilateral meetings with visiting heads of delegation on the sidelines of the summit.
The government has made extensive preparations for the event while focusing on both security and beautification of Islamabad.
According to Dawn newspaper, over 10,000 security personnel have been deployed to ensure the safety of around 900 international delegates.
Special efforts are also being made to enhance the appearance of the city, particularly along VIP routes and the Jinnah Convention Center where the summit will be held.
The prime minister himself has finalized the arrangements by visiting all these places.
The SCO meeting will discuss ongoing cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, environment, socio-cultural linkages and review the performance of the Organization.
The participants will adopt important organizational decisions to further enhance cooperation among SCO member states and approve the budget of the organization.
 

Topics: SCO Afghanistan SCO summit 2024

Saudi businessman expresses interest in setting up agricultural farms during visit to Pakistan

Saudi businessman expresses interest in setting up agricultural farms during visit to Pakistan
Updated 12 October 2024
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Saudi businessman expresses interest in setting up agricultural farms during visit to Pakistan

Saudi businessman expresses interest in setting up agricultural farms during visit to Pakistan
  • Najd Gateway Agricultural Company has already agreed to cultivate highly nutritious cattle fodder for Pakistan
  • Its chairman says Pakistan’s agricultural activities will strengthen further while praising government’s efforts
Updated 12 October 2024
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The top official of a leading Saudi agricultural firm expressed interest in developing its own farms in Pakistan, state-owned media reported Saturday, following his visit to the Green Corporate Initiative headquarters in the federal capital.

The Najd Gateway Agricultural Company from Saudi Arabia is a key player in the expansion of agricultural and livestock initiatives, both domestically and internationally.

Earlier this year, in March, the company signed an agreement with the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a hybrid civil-military body facilitating foreign businesses in Pakistan, to cultivate 5,000 acres of highly nutritious cattle fodder.

Its chairman, Prince Mansour M. Al Saud, interacted with officials at the GCI headquarters, who aim to modernize agriculture in the country, to explore investment opportunities.

“I visited [the Green Pakistan Initiative headquarters] today and spent almost two hours here,” the chairman of the Saudi company said in a video shared by Radio Pakistan. “I have seen many primary objectives they are working on, including land development and how they are focusing on biodiversity to create a significant impact on the social lives of the communities.”

“As an investor in agriculture here in Pakistan, I would be glad to get involved in their system and program, and to establish our own farms and projects in Pakistan,” he added.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed 27 agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth about $2 billion during the visit of the kingdom’s Investment Minister Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al Falih.

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal specifically mentioned the objective of increasing agricultural productivity as a key focus area for the government during his meeting with the Saudi official.

The Najd Gateway Agricultural Company’s chairman also expressed hope that Pakistan’s agricultural activities will strengthen in his video message.

Topics: Pakistan Saudi Ties

Government criticizes ex-PM Khan’s party for threatening protest in Islamabad during SCO summit

Government criticizes ex-PM Khan’s party for threatening protest in Islamabad during SCO summit
Updated 12 October 2024
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Government criticizes ex-PM Khan’s party for threatening protest in Islamabad during SCO summit

Government criticizes ex-PM Khan’s party for threatening protest in Islamabad during SCO summit
  • Pakistan is hosting the SCO Council of Heads of Government summit in Islamabad on Oct. 15-16
  • Khan’s party has threatened march to Islamabad on Oct. 15 over ban on meetings with jailed leader
Updated 12 October 2024
KASHIF IMRAN

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government has criticized former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party for announcing a protest in Islamabad on October 15, the first of a two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Pakistan is hosting the SCO Council of Heads of Government summit in Islamabad on Oct. 15-16 under its rotating chairmanship of the organization, with the participants expected to discuss issues related to trade, economic cooperation, security, and regional stability.
Khan’s PTI party on Friday announced a protest on the D-Chowk square in the federal capital, saying it would proceed with the plan if the government failed to grant the ex-premier access to doctors and lawyers. The development followed restrictions imposed by the Punjab provincial administration on meetings with inmates at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, where the ex-premier is imprisoned on multiple charges, in view of a threat alert issued by authorities in the lead-up to the summit.
In his televised comments, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif criticized the PTI for announcing the protest at a time when leaders of more than a dozen countries are expected to visit the South Asian country, accusing the party of trying to “destabilize” Pakistan.
“They want to take Pakistan hostage again, but the state will crush their motives with full force,” the defense minister said. “We won’t let Pakistan become a hostage of one man or his accomplices.”
Asif accused the PTI of being part of “international conspiracies,” saying the protest was being announced in retaliation to Pakistan’s “moral and diplomatic victory” in the form of the SCO summit, improving economic indicators and approval of a $7 bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, a former federal minister and Khan aide, denied the allegations, saying his party would never want to detriment any foreign visit, however, the government was trying a create a “false case of normality.”
“A former prime minister and leader of the largest party is illegally in prison (according to the UN) along with his wife, and to top it off has been banned to meet his legal team, doctor or family, which is against all human right conventions and our constitution,” Bukhari told Arab News on Saturday.
He said issues at home needed to be resolved before “faking business as usual.”
“Our only demand is let a doctor or sister meet Imran Khan. That’s all,” he said. “It’s completely illegal and unacceptable [not to let doctors and relatives meet he ex-PM]. And the world should know it.”

Topics: D-chowk Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party Imran Khan SCO summit 2024

Pakistani police charge Baloch rights activist with facilitating separatist militants

Pakistani police charge Baloch rights activist with facilitating separatist militants
Updated 12 October 2024
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Pakistani police charge Baloch rights activist with facilitating separatist militants

Pakistani police charge Baloch rights activist with facilitating separatist militants
  • Dr. Mahrang Baloch was recently recognized by the Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 emerging leaders for her peaceful advocacy of Baloch rights
  • Pakistan’s Balochistan, which shares porous borders with Afghanistan and Iran, has been the scene of a low-level insurgency for nearly two decades
Updated 12 October 2024
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: Police in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Friday registered a case against Dr. Mahrang Baloch, a prominent Baloch rights activist, accusing her of facilitating operations of Baloch separatist organizations in the country.
The development came days after the killing of three people, including two Chinese nationals, and injuries to 10 others in a roadside bomb attack near the Karachi airport. The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group claimed responsibility for the attack on Oct. 6.
A fierce critic of Pakistan’s powerful military, Baloch has been vocal about alleged enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan, a region struggling with a decades-long separatist insurgency. Baloch, recognized by the Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 emerging leaders for her peaceful advocacy of Baloch rights, was also barred this week from flying to the US to receive the honor.
On Friday, a citizen named Asad Ali filed the case against Baloch at the Quaidabad police station in Karachi under the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Pakistan Penal Code, accusing Baloch and her group, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), of blocking highways, leveling “false accusations” against security agencies, inciting educated Baloch youth to violence, obstructing movement of non-Baloch individuals, and targeting laborers arriving in Balochistan.
“To continue this, Mahrang Baloch has been brought to the forefront, who brings terrorists to the cities in the form of groups during her rallies,” read the police report seen by Arab News.
“These terrorists conduct reconnaissance on sensitive locations and target foreign, Chinese nationals, orchestrating attacks to undermine peace and stability of our homeland.”
Baloch and her BYC group last December led hundreds of women in a long march to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad to demand justice for their “disappeared” husbands, sons, and brothers. Earlier this year, she organized the ‘Baloch Raaji Muchi,’ or Baloch National Gathering, in the strategic port city of Gwadar to unite the Baloch people against alleged rights abuses in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.
At a press conference in August, Pakistani military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry had said the purpose of the BYC and the Baloch Raaji Muchi it had convened in July in Gwadar, where China is building a deep seaport, was to make development projects and investments “controversial” and incite people against the Pakistan army and other security forces involved in operations against insurgency and crime in Balochistan.
Pakistan’s Balochistan province, which shares porous borders with Afghanistan and Iran, has been the scene of a low-level insurgency for nearly two decades. Ethnic Baloch militants often target police, security forces, foreigners and workers from other provinces over what they call as the exploitation of the mineral-rich region’s resources. The Pakistani state denies the allegations.
Late on Thursday, unidentified gunmen killed 20 miners and injured another seven in Balochistan’s Duki district in the latest attack to hit the volatile region, according to police. The laborers, who hailed from various Pashtun-dominated areas of Balochistan and the neighboring Afghanistan, came under attack while they were asleep in their accommodation outside a private coal mining site.
In August, the BLA, the most prominent of separatist groups, carried out multiple attacks in Balochistan that killed more than 50 people, while authorities responded by killing 21 insurgents in the province. Those killed included 23 passengers, mostly from the eastern Punjab province, who were fatally shot after being taken from buses, vehicles and trucks in the Musakhail district.

Topics: Dr. Mahrang Baloch Balochistan Attacks Baloch Yakjehti Committee

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Pakistan women’s captain Sana back home after father’s death

Pakistan women’s captain Sana back home after father’s death
Updated 12 October 2024
AFP
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Pakistan women’s captain Sana back home after father’s death

Pakistan women’s captain Sana back home after father’s death
  • All-rounder Sana, the youngest captain at World Cup at 22, top-scored with 30 and took two wickets in opening win over Sri Lanka
  • Pakistan went down to arch-rivals India in their second group match but remain in the hunt to make the final-four from their group
Updated 12 October 2024
AFP

DUBAI: Pakistan captain Fatima Sana flew back home after the death of her father ahead of the team’s group clash against Australia in the Women’s T20 World Cup on Friday.
Wicketkeeper Muneeba Ali stood in to lead the team in their Group A match as they sought a win to stay in line for a berth in the semifinals.
“It’s a sad news, but these things are not under our control,” stand-in-skipper Ali said at the toss in Dubai. “We will miss her.”
Bowling all-rounder Sana, the youngest captain at the World Cup at 22, top-scored with 30 and took two wickets in their opening win over Sri Lanka.
Pakistan went down to arch-rivals India in their second group match but remain in the hunt to make the final-four from their group, where the top two teams will advance.

Topics: Pakistan women cricket team Fatima Sana

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