ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit Malaysia in February, his second trip to the country since assuming office, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a National Assembly panel on Thursday.
Qureshi, who was briefing the NA Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, also disclosed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Pakistan next month. Erdogan was scheduled to visit Islamabad last year in October but the visit was postponed, with the FO not citing a reason for it.
Prime Minister Imran’s visit to Malaysia comes after he decided to skip the Kuala Lumpur summit of some 20 Muslim countries last month, reportedly due to pressure exerted by Saudi Arabia, which had extended a helping hand to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government during its early days to stave off an economic crisis.
Foreign Minister Qureshi had confirmed that Riyadh and the UAE had concerns about the summit, saying the two countries were worried that the event could cause “division in Ummah” and lead to setting up of an organisation parallel to the existing Saudi-dominated Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Turkish media later quoted Erdogan as saying that Prime Minister Imran had decided against attending the Malaysia summit because of Saudi Arabia’s threats of economic sanctions, which allegedly included withdrawing money the kingdom has deposited in the State Bank of Pakistan and replacing Pakistani labour in Saudi Arabia with Bangladeshis.
The Saudi embassy in Islamabad had denied “information and fake news” that Riyadh had “pressurised and threatened” Pakistan to refrain from participating in the Kuala Lumpur summit, saying “the relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Islamic Republic of Pakistan are superior to the language of threat.”
