{"id":34855,"date":"2017-12-28T14:30:11","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T09:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/?p=34855"},"modified":"2017-12-28T14:31:34","modified_gmt":"2017-12-28T09:01:34","slug":"saudi-aircraft-picks-shahbaz-sharif-for-important-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/world-news\/saudi-aircraft-picks-shahbaz-sharif-for-important-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Aircraft picks Shahbaz Sharif for important meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

US proxy Saudi Arabia plays important role, admits PML-N leader<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In another big brotherly act, Saudi Arabia suddenly sent a special aircraft to Lahore to pick Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday evening for \u201cimportant meetings\u201d and perform Umrah, a mini pilgrimage at Mecca, the holiest site for world Muslims.<\/p>\n

An unanimous Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) PML-N leader told Dawn \u00a0that for many years US used to play its role in Pakistani politics through Saudi Arabia and the chief minister\u2019s visit should be seen in that perspective.<\/p>\n

Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Admiral Nawaf Ahmad Al Maliki, along with envoys of around two dozen countries, had called on Shahbaz Sharif two days ago.<\/p>\n

Shahbaz Sharif\u2019s sudden visit to Saudi Arabia came at a time when he was recently nominated as PML-N candidate for the Prime Minister office.<\/p>\n

Shahbaz Sharif is the most important political figure of Pakistan Muslim League (N) after resignation of Nawaz Sharif from then highest political office after being disqualified by Supreme Court in Panama papers scam. The ruling came in July after a probe into his family\u2019s wealth following the 2016 Panama Papers dump linking his children to offshore companies.<\/p>\n

$\"Saudi$ <\/a><\/p>\n

In May 2007, Saudi Arabia had hosted more than fifty heads of the governments and states of Muslim countries for arranging audience for US President Donald Trump <\/a>in November this year.<\/p>\n

This resembles to what Riyadh did with Lebanese Prime Minister Sa\u2019ad Hariri \u00a0<\/a>in early November. He was suddenly called to visit Riyadh on November 3. He was not received by any dignitary; instead his cell phone was confiscated. He was given a pre-written resignation to read in front of TV cameras.<\/p>\n

New York Times, on December 25, has confirmed that Saad Hariri announced his short-lived resignation under heavy duress from Riyadh government. The report was based on the accounts of Lebanese, Western and regional officials and others figures close to Hariri.<\/p>\n

Dawn, quoting an official press release reports that during his visit Shahbaz Sharif will hold meetings with important Saudi officials and perform Umrah. The Saudi ambassador had a meeting with Shahbaz three days ago, after which he left for the visit, sources say.<\/p>\n

However, Federal Minister Mushahidullah Khan has said that various issues of international and international importance would be discussed during CM\u2019s meetings with Saudi officials. He called his visit a \u201cgood news\u201d but did not elaborate.<\/p>\n

Rana Sanaullah, a minister in the provincial government and a close aide to the chief minister has said: \u201cMian Shahbaz Sharif will definitely discuss issues of national importance \u2014 not just of Punjab \u2014 with his Saudi hosts. Saudi Arabia has been our trusted brotherly country for decades and we are relying on it in many economic and other matters of international importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf\u2019s (PTI) spokesman Fawad Chaudhry said they\u2019re concerned at the visit undertaken without any prior notice to any authority or institution. He said people should be taken into confidence about the purpose and objectives of the visit.<\/p>\n

Sharif family has been enjoying \u00a0good relations with the Saudis for several decades. Riyadh rescued them from military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf in 2000. The whole family spent its seven-year exile in Jeddah. But the relations were negatively affected after Islamabad refused to send its forces to participate in Saudi- led war against Yemen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US proxy Saudi Arabia plays important role, admits PML-N leader In another big brotherly act, Saudi Arabia suddenly sent a special aircraft to Lahore to pick Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday evening for \u201cimportant meetings\u201d and perform Umrah, a mini pilgrimage at Mecca, the holiest site for world Muslims. An unanimous Pakistan Muslim […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":34860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1511],"tags":[1764,32403,21,30660,690],"yst_prominent_words":[4765,3811,36042,3688,35753,3703,36040,36037,4397,36039,36038,4396,4157,36041,4640,22326,17728,17727,4405,4503],"ppma_author":[140543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/apnlive\/uploads\/2017\/12\/crown-prince-feature.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":140543,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"apnnewsdesk","display_name":"APN Live","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/478eacb893eda88aa6ed8d99b005bf58?s=96&r=g"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34855"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=34855"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=34855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}