Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir performed Umrah in Mecca on Friday morning, during their visit to Saudi Arabia (Geo News; Reuters).
The two arrived in Jeddah on Thursday at the start of a visit running to Saturday. Makkah’s Deputy Governor Prince Saud bin Mishaal bin Abdulaziz and Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen Al-Fadley received the prime minister and the Pakistani delegation on their arrival in Jeddah.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar is also in Saudi Arabia, having travelled on from a visit to Jordan.
Foreign Office spokesman Tahir Andrabi confirmed the August 6 to 8 dates at Thursday’s weekly briefing and said the prime minister would meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with talks focused on bilateral relations and on regional and international developments.
The pilgrimage is a fixture of Pakistani prime ministerial visits to the kingdom rather than a departure from one, and it carries a domestic audience as much as a diplomatic one. It was performed this time alongside the army chief, hours before the two joined Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to sign a trilateral defence agreement — an arrangement in which the military relationship is the substance and the civilian leadership the frame.
Umrah, unlike Hajj, may be performed at any time of year.
