Imran to leave for maiden Sri Lanka visit tomorrow

Prime Minister Imran Khan will leave for a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

This will be Khan’s first visit to Sri Lanka after assuming the office of prime minister in August 2018. He will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, including members of the cabinet.

The premier is visiting the country on the invitation of his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa, Radio Pakistan reported.

During the visit, Khan will hold talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Rajapaksa, and Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, officials familiar with the situation said.

Bilateral talks would cover issues of trade and investment, health and education, agriculture and science and technology, defence and security, and culture and tourism. Key regional and international issues would also be discussed, a Foreign Office (FO) statement said.

“During the visit, the reconstitution of the Sri

Lanka-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship Association will be announced to further promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries,” the statement added. Khan will also participate in a joint “Trade and Investment Conference”.

As Sri Lanka prepares to welcome Khan, several members of the country’s Muslim minority expressed hope for him to take up their concerns during talks with government officials.

Muslims make up nearly 10 per cent of the country’s population of 22 million, which is predominantly Buddhist. The Indian Ocean island was torn for decades by a civil war between separatists from the mostly Hindu Tamil minority and the Sinhala Buddhist-dominated government.

The government stamped out the rebellion some 11 years ago. However, in recent years, Buddhist hardliners, led by the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or “Buddhist Power Force” — a Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist group — have stoked hostility against Muslims, saying influences from the Middle East had made Sri Lanka’s Muslims more conservative and isolated.