Chinese President’s visit to Pakistan likely to be delayed

ISLAMABAD: The official visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pakistan that was scheduled in mid September, likely to see a delay because of security concerns in Islamabad.

The current political crisis as PTI-PAT staging sit-ins in the capital for the last 22 days and the grave security situation is the cause of possible delay because Chinese Security Team did not gave security clearance to their President for visit.

Pakistani officials offered him Lahore as an alternate place to visit instead of Islamabad but it was rejected by the other side terming Lahore is a densely populated city.

Though the Foreign Office has not confirmed it yet but sources from government are saying that the visit has been delayed due to security concerned.

In the context of investment of worth billion rupees and signing of MoUs of many projects (including power projects), the delay in visit is seen as a big loss to Pakistan and its economy.

PTI and PAT sit-ins are being criticized for this delay whereas the both protesting parties saying its the failure of government. The Chinese president was scheduled to arrive in Islamabad on September 14, 2014.