KARACHI: As Prime Minister Imran Khan leaves on a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia today, Friday, his special adviser on power and petroleum said the government would offer incentives to existing and new players, including state oil firm Saudi Aramco, to upgrade and set up oil refineries in Pakistan under a new policy.
Khan will embark on a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia on May 7 on the invitation of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In meetings with the Saudi leadership, Khan will cover all areas of bilateral cooperation including economics, trade, investment, environment, energy, job opportunities for the Pakistani workforce, and the welfare of the Pakistani diaspora in the kingdom.
“We would wholeheartedly welcome investment from Saudi companies in Pakistan’s energy sector,” Tabish Gauhar, special assistant to the prime minister on power and petroleum told Arab News, saying the country was in the process of rolling out a new oil refinery policy this year.
“Under the policy, various fiscal and other incentives shall be offered to existing and new players, such as Saudi Aramco, to upgrade and set up deep-conversion oil refineries in the country to further reduce our dependence on imported petrol and diesel,” Gauhar added.
During a visit to Islamabad in 2019 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s, the two countries signed seven investment agreements worth $21 billion, including for a $10 billion Aramco oil refinery and a $1 billion petrochemical complex.
“As Pakistan is now one of the biggest LNG [Liquefied natural gas] importers regionally, we look forward to also having a strategic dialogue with state-owned Saudi companies for a long term supply arrangement on mutually beneficial terms and conditions,” Gauhar said.
He also expressed interest in Saudi participation in Pakistan’s renewable energy sector through upcoming auctions in wind and solar projects. The government has said by 2030 it plans to generate 30 percent of its electricity through renewables to cut down carbon emission and reduce reliance on imported fossil fuel.
Pakistan welcomes energy sector investments as PM Khan visits Saudi Arabia
https://arab.news/nwrb5
Pakistan welcomes energy sector investments as PM Khan visits Saudi Arabia
- Pakistan to offer incentives to existing and new players to upgrade and set up oil refineries under a new policy
- Anticipates ‘strategic dialogue’ with state-owned Saudi companies for long term LNG supply arrangement
No casualties as blast derails Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s south
- Passengers were stranded and railway staffers were clearing the track after blast, official says
- In March 2025, separatist militants hijacked the same train with hundreds of passengers aboard
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
