ISLAMABAD: Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev will undertake a visit to Pakistan on July 11-12, the Pakistani Foreign Office said on Tuesday, with bilateral economic cooperation on the agenda.
The visit follows an inaugural Pakistan-Turkiye-Azerbaijan trilateral summit in Kazakhstan this month, which was attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
At the summit, Sharif proposed establishment of tripartite institutional mechanisms in economic and investment areas to further strengthen cooperation among the three nations.
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said President Aliyev would hold meetings with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Sharif during the visit.
“The two sides will engage in wide-ranging discussions on areas of mutual interest in order to further strengthen bilateral cooperation,” she said in a statement. “Several Agreements and MoUs (memorandums of understanding) are expected to be signed during the visit.”
Baloch said the visit by the Azerbaijan president visit reflected “robust cooperation and leadership-level dialogue” between the two countries.
During the last meeting between the Azerbaijan leader, PM Sharif had said his country valued deep-rooted cultural, historical and religious ties between Pakistan and Azerbaijan.
He had reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to working together to elevate the tripartite cooperation into a “strong multifaceted partnership” across the sectors of economy, energy, tourism, culture, education and technology.
In recent months, Pakistan has increasingly sought to attract investment and trade with regional countries amid a macroeconomic crisis. The South Asian country last year averted a sovereign default and is currently seeking more than $6 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Azerbaijan president to visit Pakistan on July 11-12 with economic cooperation on agenda
https://arab.news/8wtue
Azerbaijan president to visit Pakistan on July 11-12 with economic cooperation on agenda
- The visit follows an inaugural Pakistan-Turkiye-Azerbaijan trilateral summit in Kazakhstan this month
- At the summit, Pakistan PM proposed tripartite institutional mechanisms in economic, investment areas
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.
