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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s new Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi on Friday said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s upcoming visit to �������� next week will focus on boosting economic investment, finalizing existing projects and setting a roadmap for future cooperation.

Sharif will visit Riyadh from Oct. 27-30 to attend the ninth Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference launched in 2017 by ��������’s Public Investment Fund under Vision 2030.

The forum brings together global leaders, investors and innovators to explore investment opportunities and advance technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and green finance.

Pakistan and �������� have long enjoyed close ties but have sought to broaden cooperation in recent years, including a defense pact signed in Riyadh during the prime minister’s visit on Sept. 18 and 34 memorandums of understanding worth $2.8 billion across multiple sectors last year.

“��������’s visit has a significant economic investment component,” Andrabi said at his debut media briefing.

“I am sure it will lead to further streamlining the already agreed, worked out projects between the two countries and also chart future trajectory of projects on the horizon.”

Asked whether Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir would accompany Sharif, Andrabi said he was “not aware” of it.

“Maybe as we are closer to the visit, we will know who is accompanying the prime minister,” he added.

�������� has long been a key source of economic support for Pakistan, providing a $3 billion deposit with the State Bank of Pakistan, repeatedly rolled over — most recently in December 2024 — and deferred oil payments of about $1.2 billion under a facility agreed in February 2025 to ease short-term financial pressures.

The recently signed defense pact between the two countries formalized decades-old security ties and stipulated that an attack against one would be considered an attack on both.

The two nations share longstanding ties rooted in faith, mutual respect and strategic cooperation, with Riyadh remaining a key political and economic partner of Islamabad.

It also hosts over 2.5 million Pakistani expatriates, the largest source of remittances for Pakistan’s $407 billion economy.

KARACHI: Ayesha Raza Farooq, the Pakistan prime minister’s focal person for polio eradication, on Friday commended frontline workers for risking their lives to protect children from polio, as the South Asian country marked the World Polio Day.

The World Polio Day is observed on Oct. 24 each year to raise awareness about global efforts to eradicate the disease that mainly affects children and can cause paralysis. It marks the birth of Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed the first polio vaccine.

Pakistan has reported 30 polio cases so far this year. The South Asian country this month ran a week-long immunization campaign, with anti-polio vaccinators going door-to-door to vaccinate over 45 million children nationwide despite multiple attacks.

“In every polio campaign, more than 400,000 frontline heroes go door-to-door to ensure the protection of every child,” Farooq was quoted as saying by the country’s polio program. “The dedication and courage of frontline health workers are the true driving force behind Pakistan’s fight against polio.”

Pakistan is among the last two nations in the world, along with Afghanistan, where the disease remains endemic.

The country has made remarkable progress since the 1990s, when annual polio cases exceeded 20,000, bringing them down to just eight by 2018. However, Pakistan recorded 74 cases in 2024, a sharp increase from six in 2023 and only one in 2021.

Pakistan’s efforts to eliminate poliovirus have been hampered by parental refusals, widespread misinformation and repeated attacks on anti-polio workers by militant groups. In remote and volatile areas, vaccination teams often operate under police protection, though security personnel themselves have also been targeted and killed in attacks.

Farooq called for renewed efforts to eradicate the virus to guarantee a safe and healthy future for every child in Pakistan.

“World Polio Day is a reminder of our commitment and our promise to achieve a polio-free Pakistan,” she added.