ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is hopeful it will sign eight investment agreements during an upcoming visit to Pakistan by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman over the weekend, the Pakistani foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is due to arrive in Islamabad on February 16 on a two-day visit that is being seen as the apogee of strong ties between the historic allies.
He is expected to sign a range of agreements worth up to $15 billion dollars, including for three power plants in Pakistan’s Punjab province and an oil refinery and petrochemical complex to be set up in the coastal city of Gwadar in southwestern Baluchistan.
“When he [Saudi crown prince] comes to Islamabad on his two-day visit, we hope to sign eight MoUs,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said at a press conference on Wednesday. declining to give a figure for the total investments expected.
He said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had also agreed to form a “coordination council” jointly supervised by the Pakistani prime minister and Saudi crown prince to ensure the implementation of the eight deals.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan and the crown prince, relevant ministers from both countries would be part of a new Pakistan-Saudi Arabia “coordination council” which would follow up on and implement agreements, Qureshi said.
“Through the council, the MoUs [memoranda of understanding] will be followed up on and made a reality,” the foreign minister said. “We are putting in place a mechanism to take these MoUs to their logical conclusion.”
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have long maintained strong ties and Riyadh has repeatedly come to Islamabad’s financial rescue. Qureshi said over the next three years, Saudi Arabia would give Pakistan a total sum of $9.6 billion in loans and oil on deferred payments to help keep its economy afloat and avert a balance of payments crisis.
On Tuesday, information minister Fawad Chaudhry told Arab News the Saudi Crown Prince would be the first state guest to stay at the official residence of the prime minister of Pakistan.
Outlining the prince’s agenda, the information minister said he would attend a reception at the Presidential Palace on the evening of Saturday.
“A reception will be hosted in his honor at the president house and will be attended by the [Pakistani] prime minister, army chief, all top ministers, bureaucrats and important personalities in the country as well as members of the royal entourage,” Chaudhry said.
On Sunday, he said, Prime Minister Imran Khan and the crown prince would co-chair meetings of various joint working groups including on trade and investment, energy, science, culture and information and media.
The crown prince will leave Pakistan on February 17 and continue onward to Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and China.
Responding to a question about reports that the prince would address a joint session of parliament, Chaudhry said: “That is highly unlikely.”
Giving details of security arrangements made for the visit, the information minister said the crown prince’s “own security team” would guard the Prime Minister House during his stay there but Pakistani security officials would also be on duty.
Chaudhry said Islamabad would be on “high security alert” throughout the prince’s visit and the Pakistan army and paramilitary Rangers would be in charge of keeping the capital safe. Saudi security and intelligence officials are also expected to be present not just at the PM House but across Islamabad during the two days the crown prince is there.
Pakistan hopes to sign 8 deals during Saudi crown prince visit
Pakistan hopes to sign 8 deals during Saudi crown prince visit
- New Pak-Saudi ‘coordination council’ will ensure implementation of deals, says Pakistani foreign minister
- Information minister says crown prince will be first state guest to stay at Pakistan PM House
Tens of thousands flee northwest Pakistan over fears of military operation
- More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled remote Tirah region bordering Afghanistan
- Government says no military operation underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
BARA, Pakistan: More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled a remote region in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan over uncertainty of a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban, residents and officials said Tuesday.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif has denied the claim by residents and provincial authorities. He said no military operation was underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Speaking at a news conference in Islamabad, he said harsh weather, rather than military action, was driving the migration. His comments came weeks after residents started fleeing Tirah over fears of a possible army operation.
The exodus began a month after mosque loudspeakers urged residents to leave Tirah by Jan. 23 to avoid potential fighting. Last August, Pakistan launched a military operation against Pakistani Taliban in the Bajau r district in the northwest, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Shafi Jan, a spokesman for the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, posted on X that he held the federal government responsible for the ordeal of the displaced people, saying authorities in Islamabad were retracting their earlier position about the military operation.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Suhail Afridi, whose party is led by imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has criticized the military and said his government will not allow troops to launch a full-scale operation in Tirah.
The military says it will continue intelligence-based operations against Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Though a separate group, it has been emboldened since the Afghan
Taliban returned to power in 2021. Authorities say many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan and that hundreds of them have crossed into Tirah, often using residents as human shields when militant hideouts are raided.
Caught in the middle are the residents of Tirah, who continued arriving in Bara.
So far, local authorities have registered roughly 10,000 families — about 70,000 people — from Tirah, which has a population of around 150,000, said Talha Rafiq Alam, a local government administrator overseeing the relief effort. He said the registration deadline, originally set for Jan. 23, has been extended to Feb. 5.
He said the displaced would be able to return once the law-and-order situation improves.
Among those arriving in Bara and nearby towns was 35-year-old Zar Badshah, who said he left with his wife and four children after the authorities ordered an evacuation. He said mortar shells had exploded in villages in recent weeks, killing a woman and wounding four children in his village. “Community elders told us to leave. They instructed us to evacuate to safer places,” he said.
At a government school in Bara, hundreds of displaced lined up outside registration centers, waiting to be enrolled to receive government assistance. Many complained the process was slow.
Narendra Singh, 27, said members of the minority Sikh community also fled Tirah after food shortages worsened, exacerbated by heavy snowfall and uncertain security.
“There was a severe shortage of food items in Tirah, and that forced us to leave,” he said.
Tirah gained national attention in September, after an explosion at a compound allegedly used to store bomb-making materials killed at least 24 people. Authorities said most of the dead were militants linked to the TTP, though local leaders disputed that account, saying civilians, including women and children, were among the dead.
