Family members on trial for murder of British-Pakistani girl

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will host ministers and officials of private mining companies from Saudi Arabia, China, the United States and a host of other countries for a two-day minerals summit in the capital today, Tuesday, as it eyes international investment in its natural reserves estimated to be worth $6 trillion. .

Grappling with a prolonged macroeconomic crisis, Pakistan hopes to tap into its vast reserves of minerals and natural resources to turn its fortunes around. The country is home to one of the world’s largest porphyry copper-gold mineral zones, while the Reko Diq mine in southwestern Balochistan has an estimated 5.9 billion tons of ore. Barrick Gold, which owns a 50 percent stake in the Reko Diq mines, considers them one of the world’s largest underdeveloped copper-gold areas, and their development is expected to have a significant impact on Pakistan’s struggling economy. 

The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), Pakistan’s leading exploration and production (E&P) company, in collaboration with the government of Pakistan and strategic partners are organizing the summit. Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik said this week that the government expects around 2,000 people to attend the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum from Apr. 8-9 in Islamabad, which would include a “significant” number of foreign dignitaries. 

“At the government level, ministers are also participating, heads of big private mining companies are also coming and those countries who would also be part of the discussions include participation from Turkiye,” Malik told reporters during a news conference on Monday. 

“Apart from this, we are expecting senior-level participation from China, from Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, China and the United States,” he said. 

He said the government will formally unveil Pakistan’s newly developed, investor-friendly National Minerals Harmonization Framework 2025, which aims to attract investment in the country’s mineral sector, at the forum. 

The minister said the summit would also feature key agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) signed between Pakistan and other countries. 

“It is the prime minister’s wish that we do not restrict this event to just words, so we will confirm some MoUs in front of you,” Malik said. “Along with this, not just MoUs but a few agreements will also be executed after which we will take these matters toward implementation.”

Pakistan has designated mining and minerals as a priority sector for national economic development, aiming to reduce its reliance on imports and enhance exports. The country is undertaking efforts to utilize its natural resources through foreign investment and collaboration to stabilize its $350 billion economy, which has suffered a prolonged economic crisis over the past few years. 

Islamabad has aggressively pursued trade and investment with its regional allies, Central Asian states and Gulf countries in recent months to ward off a macroeconomic crisis that has drained its reserves, weakened its currency and triggered a balance of payment crisis. 

Pakistan formed the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a hybrid civil-military government body, in 2023 to attract international investment in its key priority sectors, mining and minerals among them. 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has issued more than 6,500 visas to Indian Sikh pilgrims for the Baisakhi festival this month, the Pakistani high commission in New Delhi said on Monday.
Baisakhi, the spring harvest festival primarily celebrated in Punjab and northern India, marks the beginning of the Sikh New Year and symbolizes spiritual rejuvenation, with celebrations centered around Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal, some 45 kilometers northwest of Islamabad.
Sikhs are a small minority based in the Punjab region that is divided between Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India, but several Sikh holy sites ended up being in Pakistan after the partition of the Subcontinent in 1947.
The annual festival is scheduled to be held in Pakistan on April 10-19, with pilgrims expected to visit Gurdwara Panja Sahib, Gurdwara Nankana Sahib and Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib.
“The large number of visas issued by the Government of Pakistan is a manifestation of our policy to foster harmony and promote understanding between peoples, cultures and religions,” Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires was quoted as saying by the country’s high commission in New Delhi.
“Pakistan would continue to facilitate such visits to sacred and holy sites.”
The shrine in Hasan Abdal is one of Sikhism’s holiest sites and it is believed that the handprint of the founder of the religion, Guru Nanak, is imprinted on a boulder there.
Baisakhi is also meant to mark the day when Gobind Singh, the 10th and final guru of Sikhism, established the discipline of Khalsa, through which the faithful can aspire to the ultimate state of purity.
Every year, a large number of Yatrees from India visit Pakistan to observe various religious festivals under the framework of the Pakistan-India Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines of 1974.