Daily Times

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was scheduled to land in Islamabad early Sunday on his first trip to Pakistan as the world body’s chief during which he will speak at an international conference on 40 years of hosting afghan refugees in Pakistan, and meet Prime Minister Imran Khan and other high-level government officials.

The two-day conference in Islamabad on February 17 will be a recognition of Pakistan’s tremendous generosity in hosting millions of refugees from Afghanistan over four decades, his spokesman told a regular briefing at UN Headquarters in New York. The conference, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Khan, is being organised by the Government of Pakistan and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The spokesman said the UN chief will also hold talks with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi and later speak at an event on sustainable development and climate change. On Monday, after speaking at the international conference, along with High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, Guterres will participate in a high-level panel discussion and other events at the conference, the spokesman said. The secretary-general, the high commissioner and the foreign minister will speak to the press. The secretary-general will also meet with the President Arif Alvi on Monday.

The secretary-general will be in Lahore on Tuesday, where he will meet with students and attend an event on Pakistan’s polio vaccination campaign. He will also travel to Kartarpur to visit the Sikh holy site of Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib. He will return to New York on Wednesday.

The spokesman was asked whether the situation in Indian-held Kashmir and the resulting Indo-Pakistan tensions will be discussed during the secretary-general’s talks with the Pakistani leadership. “Well, I have no doubt that the secretary general and the prime minister will discuss a host of issues,” he replied. “What issues are raised obviously also depends on what issues the prime minister brings up.”