ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has kicked off preparations for the summit of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to be held on November 11 to discuss serious challenges being faced by the Ummah. Leaders of Islamic countries will present their proposals at the summit on issues including terrorism, Kashmir, Palestine, inter-faith harmony, clash of civilisations and economic development.
The mega event will be attended by heads of states governments or their representatives of fifty six Islamic states. It would be third summit of the OIC, which Pakistan will be hosting. The last summit was the first extraordinary summit of the OIC and it was also held during Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister in March 1997.
The slated conference would be addressing the subject of Science and Technology. Officials said that the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Saudi King, Salman bin Abdel Aziz, President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Iran Dr Hasan Rouhani, President UAE Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razzak, Qatar’s Emir Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Egyptian President Field Marshal Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Iraq President Fuad Masum, Algerian President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika, Jordanian King Abdullah II, Kuwait Emir Shaikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jabar Al-Sabah, President Palestine Mahmoud Abbas, Azerbaijan President Ilham Alyev and Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said and Nigeria’s new President Muhammad Buhari have accepted the invitation to attend the summit. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid’s reply is still awaited. Secretary General United Nations, Ban Ki-moon will also attend the summit to be held here in Jinnah Convention Centre.
President Mamnoon Hussain will inaugurate the summit while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be the chief guest in the concluding session of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to make befitting arrangements for the summit. An amount of rupees five billion has been allocated to the CDA for the beautification of the federal capital.