Iranian president visits Lahore, Karachi during three-day official visit to Pakistan
Publishing date: 23 April 2024
Published in: Business Recorder
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday arrived in Karachi on the second day of his three-day visit to Pakistan, authorities said, following his visit to the eastern city of Lahore.
Raisi arrived in Islamabad on Monday on a three-day visit as the two Muslim neighbors seek to mend ties after unprecedented tit-for-tat military strikes earlier this year.
The visit also comes as tensions are high in the Middle East after Iran launched airstrikes on Israel a week ago and Israel retaliated with its own attack on Friday.
Upon arrival at the Karachi airport, the Iranian president was received by Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, amid strict security at the airport and in adjacent areas.
“Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi has arrived in Karachi along with his wife Jamileh Alamolhoda,” the information department in the Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, said in a statement.
“The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, left from the Karachi airport for Mazar-e-Quaid [mausoleum of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah].”
Earlier in the day, Ebrahim Raisi visited the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore. The Iranian president began his Lahore trip by visiting the mausoleum of Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistan’s national poet, whose literary works in the Persian language have garnered him wide recognition in Iran.
He later met top provincial officials, including Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and Governor Baligh-ur-Rehman. In his meeting with CM Nawaz, the two figures reaffirmed commitment to enhancing cultural exchanges and fostering people-to-people contacts, according to a statement issued from the Punjab CM’s office.
“The Chief Minister explained the measures taken in the province for socio-economic development and expressed a desire for close engagement with Iranian cities and provinces for mutual benefit and prosperity,” it read.
“President Raisi appreciated the rich cultural history of the city of Lahore and expressed admiration for the poet of the East, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, who is revered in Iran as ‘Iqbal-e-Lahori’.”
The Iranian official’s visit is the first by any head of state to Pakistan after the South Asian nation’s February general elections and the formation of a new government headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
On Monday, Raisi held delegation-level meetings in the Pakistani capital as well as one-on-one discussions with the prime minister, president, army chief, chairman senate and speaker national assembly.
He also witnessed the signing of eight MoUs and agreements covering different fields including trade, science technology, agriculture, health, culture, and judicial matters. These include an MoU on the establishment of the Rimdan-Gabd Joint Free/Special Zone; on cooperation between the Ministry of Cooperative Labour and Social Welfare of Iran and the Ministry of Overseas Pakistani and Human Resources Development of Pakistan; on judicial assistance and legal cooperation at the ministry levels; on cooperation for animal hygiene and health; on mutual recognition in the field of quarantine and phytosanitary; and on the promotion of culture and films.
“The economic and trade volume between Iran and Pakistan is not acceptable at all and we have decided at the first step to increase the trade volume between our two countries to $10 billion,” Raisi said at a joint press conference with Sharif.
The interior ministers of Pakistan and Iran also met on Monday and discussed border management to prevent smuggling and drugs trafficking, and “decided in principle to ban terrorist organizations in their respective countries,” state news wire APP said.
“The two sides agreed on a joint plan of action to deal with the menace of terrorism being a common problem, with further improving mutual support and exchange of intelligence information.”
A security agreement regarding this decision would be signed “at the earliest,” APP added.
Pakistan and Iran have had a history of rocky relations despite a number of commercial pacts, with Islamabad being historically closer to Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Their highest profile agreement is a stalled gas supply deal signed in 2010 to build a pipeline from Iran’s South Fars gas field to Pakistan’s southern provinces of Balochistan and Sindh.
Pakistan and Iran are also often at odds over instability on their shared porous border, with both countries routinely trading blame for not rooting out militancy.
Tensions surged in January when Pakistan and Iran exchanged airstrikes, both claiming to target alleged militant hideouts in each other’s countries. Both sides have since then undertaken peace overtures and restored bilateral ties.