Saudi crown prince visit to Pakistan postponed
The much-anticipated visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Pakistan was postponed_ Pakistan's Foreign Office officials confirmed on Saturday without citing any reasons.
Saudi Crown Prince visit is being rescheduled. New dates will be mutually finalised by the two sides_ Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra told media. She would not provide any further details.
Mohammed bin Salman was to travel to Islamabad on November 21 his first visit in over four years that Pakistan was hoping would bring an other financial bailout package.
Crown Prince Salman also postponed his visit to neighboring India as well as other Asian countries. Now_ he would only attend the G20 summit in Indonesia.
Though no official reason was given about the postponement_ sources said multiple factors_ including present political uncertainty and the appointment of new army chief might have played a key role.
One individual_ who was consulted by the Saudi authorities about the visit_ told that Saudi was confused whether to go ahead with the visit considering the prevailing political situation in the country. The said individual added that lack of preparation by Pakistan was also to blame.
Pakistan considered the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince as crucial as it expected yet another financial bailout package from the kingdom.
Pakistan was hoping to secure a 13 billion US dollar financial bailout package combined from Saudi Arabia and China in order to deal with the dwindling foreign reserves.
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