PM chairs preparatory meeting on Saudi visit

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed the authorities concerned to make recommendations for further strengthening the long-standing brotherly relations with Saudi Arabia, especially in fields of employment, energy, food security and long-term strategic partnership.

Shehbaz, who is embarking on a four-day visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday (tomorrow), chaired a preparatory meeting for the upcoming visit. He stressed that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were bound by the everlasting bond of Muslim brotherhood at the grassroots level.

Shahbaz will be accompanied by high-level delegation during the visit, which will begin on April 27. During the visit, the will also perform Umrah, besides holding important meetings with Saudi leadership. This will be the first foreign visit of Shahbaz as the prime minister.

The meeting was attended by former prime minsiter Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Overseas Pakistanis Minister Sajid Hussain Turi, Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, Special Assistant Tariq Fatemi and senior officials.

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In a series of tweets later, the information minister clarified that Prime Minister Shehbaz would travel on a commercial flight to Saudi Arabia, adding that he would bear the expenditure of his upcoming visit instead of burdening the national exchequer.

Referring to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry’s tweet, Aurangzeb said that the former minister should know that neither Shehbaz Sharif was taking a chartered plane nor any journalist would go with him on government expenditures.

She said former prime minister Imran Khan and his cronies were known for banning channels and programmes during their days in power and added that now, after their expulsion from power, they have unleashed baseless allegations.