ISLAMABAD: Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has accepted President Arif Alvi’s invitation to visit Pakistan, Alvi’s office said in a statement on Monday, with the details of the trip yet to be finalized.
The Pakistani president said the emir of Kuwait had written a letter, expressing “satisfaction over the strong ties between Pakistan and Kuwait and reiterated his commitment to further expand relations in all fields for the mutual interest.”
Sheikh Nawaf’s letter follows Kuwait’s decision to lift a travel ban on Pakistanis in May this year.
Kuwait had suspended visas for nationals of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2011 over what it said was difficult security conditions in the five countries.
Pakistan began visa resumption talks with Kuwait in 2020, following which hundreds of nurses, doctors and medical technicians were able to travel to the Gulf state.
In May, after a meeting with Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said business and family visas for Pakistani nationals would be resumed “immediately”.
Last month, during a meeting with his Kuwaiti counterpart, Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi welcomed Kuwait’s relaxation of the travel restrictions.
Pakistan enjoys a long-standing fraternal relationship with Kuwait, an important Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country.
Kuwaiti emir accepts President Alvi’s invitation to visit Pakistan
https://arab.news/ppcr6
Kuwaiti emir accepts President Alvi’s invitation to visit Pakistan
- Sheikh Nawaf reiterates commitment to ‘expand relations’ between the two countries
- Kuwait lifted a decade-old travel ban on Pakistanis in May this year
Pakistan PM approves framework for National Energy Plan aimed at cutting power costs
- Electricity costs in Pakistan have been a major concern for both industries and domestic consumers
- PM Shehbaz Sharif instructs authorities to expedite privatization of power distribution companies
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday approved the framework for a National Energy Plan aimed at ensuring low electricity costs for industries and facilitating domestic consumers, Pakistani state broadcaster reported.
The development took place during a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy in Islamabad presided over by Sharif. The Pakistani prime minister directed all ministries and provincial governments to present a “workable and coordinated” strategy under the proposed plan.
Electricity costs in Pakistan have been a major concern for both industries and domestic consumers. Industrial users often face high tariffs that increase production cost while residential consumers struggle with rising bills that impact household budgets.
“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has given in-principle approval for the formulation of a comprehensive National Energy Plan in consultation with relevant ministries and provincial governments,” Radio Pakistan said in a report.
“He emphasized that the government’s top priorities include ensuring electricity supply to industries at the lowest possible cost and providing facilitation for domestic consumers.”
Sharif also approved the establishment of a dedicated secretariat for the National Energy Plan and gave approval to the framework guidelines for auctioning wheeling charges, it added.
Wheeling charges are fees paid for using another company’s power grid to transmit electricity from a generator to a consumer, covering the cost of transporting electricity over someone else’s network.
The report said Sharif instructed authorities to include the recommendations of the climate change, finance, industries and petroleum ministries into the plan.
Sharif also gave instructions to expedite the privatization of power distribution companies (DISCOs) and urged competitive tariffs for industries to boost production capacity.
Fluctuations in fuel prices, inefficiencies in the power sector, and reliance on imported energy have contributed to high electricity costs in Pakistan in recent years, making energy affordability and stability a key focus for government policies and reforms.
Pakistan has pushed energy sector reforms to tackle long-standing issues like circular debt, power theft, and transmission losses, which have caused blackouts and high electricity costs.
In February, Pakistan developed a new energy policy that it says will help the country attract $5 billion in investment through public-private partnerships.
