SCO Summit: PM concludes Samarkand trip on ‘satisfactory note’

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday departed from Samarkand after completing his two-day visit to Uzbekistan mainly to attend the annual Meeting of the Council of heads of state of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

“Leaving Samarkand on a satisfactory note. There is now a renewed awareness about the potent threat of climate change,” the prime minister, who spoke in detail at the summit about the threats posed by climate change and the devastation caused by climate change-induced floods in Pakistan, wrote in a Twitter post.

During his address earlier, the premiere called upon the SCO member states to come up with Pakistan-specific programmes on climate change as the country faced the devastating impact of this phenomenon.

“This climatic injustice has befallen us despite the fact that our carbon emission is less than one per cent [of the global emission],” the prime minister said in his address at the SCO moot.

The prime minister’s call to the SCO members came in the wake of the recent flash floods in Pakistan that wreaked havoc to the livelihood of millions and infrastructure across the country.

Shehbaz mentioned that Pakistan was braving extraordinary floods, which have killed 1,400 people including 400 children while millions of houses have been damaged partially or completely.

“I earnestly appeal to all of you that let the SCO stand up and take steps against this devastation through sustainable programmes,” he said.

On Twitter, the prime minister wrote that the SCO countries understood that climate change was capable of reversing all “our material development and pushing us backward by decades.”

Read more: PM draws SCO's attention to making Pakistan-specific climate action plans

He said that the prevailing threatening situation necessitated a “united front” against climate change.

Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov saw off the prime minister and his delegation at the Samarkand airport.

During the two-day visit, the premier met the presidents of China, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

He began his visit by paying respects at the mausoleum of Uzbekistan’s first President Islam Karimov at the ancient Khizar mosque.

Before concluding his visit, the prime minister also offered Fateha at the mausoleum of Imam Bukhari, a prominent theologian, the Hadith collector and the author of Sahih al-Bukhari.