Former PM Nawaz Sharif will be royal guest in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia invites ‘Nawaz Sharif, PM Shehbaz for Umrah’. In a gesture of goodwill, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has invited Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif — who is considered closer to the royal family — and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to the kingdom to perform Umrah, well-placed sources revealed.
According to the sources privy to the development, the three-time former prime minister — who is in a self-imposed exile in London on medical grounds since November 2019 — along with his daughter Maryam Nawaz and other family members will depart for Saudi Arabia via a special plane on April 11.
Nawaz Sharif will be the royal guest in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He would spend the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan in Medina and Makkah, the sources added.
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However, the final schedule of Sharif’s visit to the kingdom has not been announced yet.
It is pertinent to mention here that various ministers and parliamentarians have devised plans to perform Umrah during the period.
The ʿUmrah is an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca (the holiest city for Muslims, located in the Hejazi region of Saudi Arabia) that can be undertaken at any time of the year, in contrast to the Ḥajj, which has specific dates according to the Islamic lunar calendar.
