A record investment package being prepared by Saudi Arabia for Pakistan will likely provide welcome relief for its cash-strapped Muslim ally, while also addressing regional geopolitical challenges, analysts say.
At the heart of the investment is a reported $10 billion refinery and oil complex in the strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea, the ultimate destination for the massive multi-billion dollar China Pakistan Economic Corridor, which lies not far from the Indo-Iranian port of Chabahar.
Two Saudi sources have confirmed to AFP that heir apparent to the Gulf kingdom's throne, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will visit Islamabad shortly, without giving a date.
And a number of major investment deals are expected to be signed during a visit, officials from both countries have told AFP.
Riyadh and Islamabad, decades-old allies, have been involved for months in talks to hammer out details of the deals in time for the high-profile visit.
"The outcome of the talks so far has been very positive and this is going to be one of the biggest-ever Saudi investments in Pakistan," a Pakistani senior finance ministry official told AFP.
"We hope that an agreement to this effect will be signed during the upcoming visit of the Saudi crown prince to Pakistan," said the official, requesting anonymity.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Islamabad's biggest trading partner in the Middle East, have offered Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan some $30 billion in investment and loans.
Riyadh investments are expected to provide a lifeline for Pakistan's slumping economy which was downgraded in early February by S&P ratings agency from a B to a B-, Saudi economist Fadhl al-Bouenain said.
"Saudi investment to Pakistan comes within an economic aid package aimed at relieving the stress of external debt and a shortage of foreign currency, besides boosting the sluggish economy," Bouenain told AFP.
The OPEC heavyweight also aims to achieve strategic and commercial goals with investments in infrastructure and refinery projects, he said.
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partner, the UAE, have already deposited $3 billion each in Pakistan's central bank to help resolve a balance of payments crisis and shore up its declining rupee.
They have also reportedly deferred some $6 billion in oil imports payments as Islamabad has so far failed to secure fresh loans from the International Monetary Fund.
Khan has already visited Riyadh twice since taking office in July and in October attended a prestigious investment conference widely boycotted by other political and economic figures after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khan also visited Saudi rivals Qatar and Turkey, as well as China seeking investments.
"One of the goals for Saudi Arabia expanding investments in refining worldwide is to secure market share and sustainable exports in the face of international competition," Bouenain said.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih visited Gwadar in January and inspected the site for the proposed oil refinery at the deep sea port, just 70 kilometres (45 miles) away from its Iranian competitor, Chabahar.
He was quoted by local media as saying the kingdom was studying plans to construct a $10 billion refinery and petrochemicals complex in Gwadar.
Like most oil suppliers, the world's top crude exporter has been investing heavily in refinery and petrochemicals projects across the globe to secure long-term buyers of its oil.
A pipeline from Gwadar to China would cut the supply time from the current 40 days to just seven, experts say.
Developed as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative with investments worth some $60 billion, Gwadar is being billed as a regional industrial hub of the future, easily accessible for Central Asia, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa.
"Pakistan needs a rich partner to enter as a third party besides China, capable of injecting needed cash," Bouenain said.
But so far China has rejected other partners for the corridor that seeks to connect its western province Xinjiang with Gwadar, including Saudi Arabia and UAE, said James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
This is despite calls by Khan "for the Chinese investments to be restructured to include agriculture and job-creation sectors and not only in infrastructure", Dorsey told AFP.
Any Saudi investment in Gwadar will also have geopolitical dimensions, Dorsey said.
Iran late last year inaugurated Chabahar which provides a key supply route to landlocked Afghanistan and allows India to bypass its historic enemy Pakistan.
India has seen Chabahar as a key way both to send supplies to Afghanistan and to step up trade with Central Asia as well as Africa.
But Riyadh is not expected to get involved in any Indo-Pakistani rivalry and the kingdom also has major strategic energy deals with New Delhi, where demand for oil is growing fast.
Indeed in April, the Saudis signed a $44 billion deal to build a huge refinery and petrochemicals complex in western India.
Mega Saudi Investment deals expected during Crown Prince's visit
Mega Saudi Investment deals expected during Crown Prince's visit
- The Kingdom is building a $10 billion refinery and petrochemicals complex in Gwadar
- Pakistan takes KSA as third partner in multi-billion dollar CPEC project
Pakistan vaccinates over 42 million children during first anti-polio drive this year
- Last year, Pakistan reported 31 polio cases, a significant drop from 74 cases in 2024
- Authorities appeal to parents to ensure all children below five years are vaccinated
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health authorities have vaccinated more than 42 million children in an ongoing anti-polio drive this week, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said on Friday.
Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated vaccination for every child under five.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic. Last year, Pakistan reported 31 polio cases, a significant drop from 74 cases in 2024.
Authorities on Feb. 2 began the first anti-polio drive of this year which will continue till Feb. 8 and aims to reach 45.4 million children, aged below five, across the South Asian country.
“The first national polio campaign of 2026 continues for the fifth day across the country,” the NEOC said on Friday. “Vaccination of more than 42.2 million children across the country has been completed in four days.”
Of these 42.2 million, more than 22.4 million children have been vaccinated in Punjab, 9.585 million in Sindh, 6.764 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and over 2 million children have been inoculated in Balochistan.
It said more than 454,000 children were vaccinated in the federal capital of Islamabad, 261,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan and over 673,000 in Azad Kashmir.
“More than 400,000 polio workers are going door to door to administer polio drops to children,” the NEOC statement read. “Parents and communities are appealed to cooperate fully with polio workers.”
Another campaign is being simultaneously run in Afghanistan, according to the NEOC.
Pakistan reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021, but the country saw a sharp resurgence in 2024.
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994, but efforts to eradicate the virus have been repeatedly undermined by vaccine misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners who claim that immunization is a foreign plot to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western espionage.
Militant groups have also frequently targeted polio vaccination teams and the security personnel assigned to protect them, often resulting in deadly at
