Tajik President Emomali Rahmon will arrive in Pakistan tomorrow (Wednesday) on a two-day official visit at the invitation of Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif.
This is the second time that President Rahmon will be meeting PM Shehbaz this year. This tour will be his second visit to Pakistan within two years.
According to the Pakistani Foreign Office (FO), during Rahmon’s visit, the two sides will exchange views on further strengthening bilateral cooperation in a wide range of areas and are expected to sign multiple bilateral agreements and memorandum of understanding (MoU).
The FO also termed Tajikistan an “important partner of Pakistan in Central Asia”.
PM Shehbaz and President Rahmon had last met in September this year at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.
At that time, the Pakistani prime minister thanked Tajikistan for its support to the flood affectees in Pakistan and shared details of the devastation caused by the massive floods.
President Rahmon last visited Islamabad in June 2021 when former PM Imran Khan was in power.
The government has convinced Saudi Arabia to resume a significant project to build a cutting-edge deep conversion refinery and petrochemical complex in Pakistan.
A high-ranking team from the kingdom led by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman will visit Pakistan in the final week of November, when a formal announcement is anticipated in this regard, according to a top official at the Energy Ministry.
According to Geo, the Pakistani government reportedly made a tremendous effort to convince the kingdom to uphold the memoranda of understanding and invest in Pakistan. Riyadh and Washington are at odds over a reduction in the supply of oil on the world market, and Islamabad has thrown its support behind Riyadh in this dispute.
Saudi Arabia signed MoUs in February 2019 during Mohammad Bin Salman’s visit to Pakistan for an investment of $21 billion in a number of economic sectors, including the $12 billion deep conversion refinery and petrochemical complex project.
At this regard, the Saudi oil tycoon Aramco also carried out research, which concluded that building a refinery in Gwadar was not practical. However, the official claimed that it may be erected in Hub, Balochistan, or close to Karachi.
Later, the insider claimed, when relations between Imran Khan’s administration and Saudi Arabia became tense, the kingdom’s top leaders essentially put $21 billion in MoUs on hold that had been inked in February 2019.
According to the source, the Ministry of Petroleum is currently updating the draught for the refining policy in order to attract investment for the construction of new refineries.
In addition to broadening the tax holiday’s application, the government is considering offering investors profitability at 14–15% instead of the 9% that was previously promised in the PTI administration’s plan for policy refinement.
Danila Ganich, Russia’s ambassador to Pakistan, has said that in his opinion the Russian visit could have been “one of the factors” for the removal of former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan from power but added that it was a sheer coincidence that Khan happened to be in Russia the day the Ukraine war broke out.
“I think that was one of the factors but I also know that it was a sheer coincidence that he happened to be in Moscow on that very day,” said Ganich when asked if Khan’s government was removed from power because of his visit to Russia in an interview with Aaj News‘ senior anchorperson Shaukat Piracha.
“The proof of that is just the fact that he was in Moscow on that very day, had he known that the operation would start on that very day, definitely he would have tried to refrain from being there on that very day. So that was a coincidence.”
“As an ambassador of a foreign country I prefer not to interfere in your internal affairs.”
“I do know that Pakistani [authorities] concluded that there was no conspiracy. So here I would like to say period. I cannot take sides here, especially when your judge concluded that there was no conspiracy,” said Ganich.
Ganich said that Russia and Pakistan did not conclude any memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Khan’s claims that Russia had agreed to sell both wheat and oil at a 20 per cent and 30 per cent discount to Pakistan due to the efforts of his government.
“I can confirm that we did not conclude any MoU,” the ambassador revealed. “As for what kind of discounts could have been offered [on oil and wheat], I cannot comment on this, as these are confidential negotiations.”
Earlier, Russian Counsel General in Karachi, Andrey Fedorov said that a proposal was discussed between the two parties, while categorically denying that any letter was written by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government to Russia, reported Samaa News.
Miftah further said that even though a letter was written by former minister Hammad Azhar, Russia did not respond to the letter.
Former premier Khan recently said that during his time in power, the PTI government had signed an agreement with Russia to buy cheap oil and wheat. Adding that his government remained in power Pakistan would not have to face the petrol bomb.
