ISLAMABAD: Pakistan eagerly awaits the arrival of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who is set to arrive in Islamabad today on a two-day official visit to Pakistan upon the invitation of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The crown prince will be accompanied by a high-powered delegation, including members of the Saudi royal family, key ministers and leading businessmen.
This will be the first official visit of the dignitary to Pakistan since his elevation to the position of crown prince in April 2017. During his visit, he will meet President Dr. Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa. A delegation of Pakistan’s Senate will also call on the crown prince and discuss ways to enhance parliamentary cooperation between the two countries.
During his stay, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will sign a number of agreements and MoUs in diverse sectors including investment, finance, power, renewable energy, internal security, media, culture and sports. The two countries will also discuss ways and means to develop a robust follow-up mechanism to ensure effective implementation and quick progress on tangible areas of cooperation.
The Saudi ministers accompanying the crown prince will meet their counterparts to discuss bilateral cooperation in their respective fields.
Meanwhile, elaborate arrangements have been made in the federal capital to accord a rousing and unprecedentedly warm welcome to crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and his entourage upon their arrival into Pakistan.
Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhry told reporters in Islamabad on Friday that the government has finalized arrangements to welcome the crown prince and that Prime Minister Imran Khan would personally receive him at Nur Khan Airbase.
“A fleet of Pakistan Air Force jets would escort his airplanes as they enter the country’s airspace. The crown prince would be given a 21 gun salute at the airport,” Pakistan’s state run news agency APP quoted Chaudhry.
Big portraits of the crown prince, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Arif Alvi have been erected on Constitution Avenue in Islamabad. Banners and posters inscribed with slogans of Pak-Saudi friendship and fraternity have also been put on display along the roads.
Pakistan’s top government and opposition party officials have also released warm welcome messages for the Saudi crown prince.
Opposition leader in the National Assembly and President of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Shehbaz Sharif, who has longstanding ties with the Saudi royal family, welcomed the crown prince’s visit on twitter.
In a tweet released by his official party page, Sharif said that the economic relationship between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia was in the interests of both the countries and of the Muslim Ummah.
In a statement, former President Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People’s Party [PPP] said the party and the Bhutto family welcomed the prince’s visit and expressed hope for further improvement in bilateral relations, calling Saudi Arabia, “a very creditable and respectable friend of our country and its people.”
“Saudi Arabia has always stood by Pakistan in moments of need and will hopefully continue to do so,” he said.
Saudi Crown Prince arrives in Islamabad today
Saudi Crown Prince arrives in Islamabad today
- He will be accompanied by a high-powered delegation, including members of the Saudi royal family
- Elaborate arrangements have been made in the federal capital to accord an unprecedentedly warm welcome
Islamabad hits back after Indian minister blames Pakistan army for ‘ideological hostility’
- Jaishankar tells a public forum most of India’s problems with Islamabad stem from Pakistan’s military establishment
- Pakistan condemns the remarks, accusing India of waging a propaganda drive to deflect from its destabilizing actions
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan accused India on Sunday of running a propaganda campaign to malign its state institutions, a day after Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar attributed what he described as Pakistan’s “ideological hostility” toward New Delhi to the country’s powerful army.
Addressing a public forum in New Delhi, Jaishankar said most of India’s problems with Pakistan stemmed from its military establishment, which he argued had cultivated and sustained an entrenched animosity toward India.
His remarks came months after a brief but intense military confrontation between the nuclear-armed neighbors, during which both sides exchanged artillery and missile fire and deployed drones and fighter jets.
Responding to the comments, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi called them “highly inflammatory, baseless and irresponsible.”
“Pakistan is a responsible state and its all institutions, including armed forces, are a pillar of national security, dedicated to safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country,” Andrabi said in a statement. “The May 2025 conflict vividly demonstrated Pakistan armed forces’ professionalism as well as their resolve to defend the motherland and the people of Pakistan against any Indian aggression in a befitting, effective yet responsible manner.”
“The attempts by Indian leadership to defame Pakistan’s state institutions and its leadership are a part of a propaganda campaign designed to distract attention from India’s destabilising actions in the region and beyond as well as state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan,” he said, adding that such “incendiary rhetoric” showed the extent of India’s disregard for regional peace and stability.
Andrabi said that rather than making “misleading remarks about the armed forces of Pakistan,” India should confront the “fascist and revisionist Hindutva ideology that has unleashed a reign of mob justice, lynchings, arbitrary detentions and demolition of properties and places of worship.”
He warned that the Indian state and its leadership had become hostage to “this terror in the name of religion.”
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947. They have also engaged in countless border skirmishes and major military standoffs, including the 1999 Kargil conflict.
The four-day conflict in May 2025 ended with a US-brokered ceasefire, after Washington said both sides had expressed willingness to pursue dialogue.
Pakistan said it was ready to discuss all outstanding issues, but India declined talks.
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