Belarus President to arrive in Islamabad on Nov 25 for three-day visit

• Lukashenko visiting Pakistan at invitation of PM Shehbaz: FO.
• "Several agreements, MoUs to also be signed during his visit."
• 65-member delegation to accompany Belarus president: Naqvi.

ISLAMABAD: The president of the Republic of Belarus, Aleksandr Grigorievich Lukashenko, will undertake an official visit to Pakistan from November 25 to 27 with several agreements to be signed, the Foreign Office said on Thursday.

"At the invitation of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Belarus President will undertake an official visit to Pakistan," stated a statement issued by the Foreign Office.

The statement noted that President Lukashenko will hold extensive talks with PM Shehbaz and discuss areas of bilateral cooperation and engagement.

Several agreements and memorandum of understandings (MoUs) will also be signed during the visit, it added.

The prime minister of Belarus, Roman Golovchenko, was in Islamabad earlier this year for the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) Meeting, where he met his counterpart among other key leaders.

The visit came amid Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) plan to hold "do-or-die" protest in Islamabad on November 24 against the alleged rigging in the February 8 elections, arrests of party workers, and the passage of the judiciary-centric 26th Constitutional Amendment.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told the Islamabad High Court earlier today that the President of Belarus, accompanied by a 65-member delegation, is scheduled to visit Pakistan and the government aims to secure the Red Zone in this regard.

He made these remarks as IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq heard the petition of Asad Aziz, President of the Traders Association, against the PTI’s much-hyped protest.

He said that there was the same situation at the time of the recent SCO conference, adding that protests are announced when foreign leaders visiting to Pakistan. He emphasised the critical need for maintaining security on the occasion.

The former ruling party, for months, has been engaged in a political tug-of-war with the ruling coalition — which it alleges came into power via rigged February 8 polls — and has held multiple protests in the federal capital.