Pak PM to be the first head of the govt to receive a guard of honor at Army Pavilion 

KATHMANDU, Mar 5: Revising the previous location of offering such honor, the newly-formed government of K P Sharma Oli has decided to establish a new practice of offering the guard of honor to all the visiting foreign VVIPs at Nepal Army Pavilion, Tundikhel.

So far, Nepal Army has been offering the guard of honor to the foreign delegates at the VVIP lounge of Tribhuvan International Airport upon their arrival in Kathmandu. This practice is being discontinued from Monday with the government preparing to offer such honor to the visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Sahid Khaqan Abbasi at the Army Pavilion. 

Prime Minister Abbasi is arriving in Kathmandu on a two-day visit to congratulate his Nepali counterpart on his election as the 38th prime minister of Nepal.

"We have received instructions from the government to offer the guard of honor to Pakistani Prime Minister Abbasi at the Army Pavilion. We have made our arrangement accordingly," said Nepal Army Spokesperson Gokul Bhandari. 

Brigadier General Bhandari said this is the first time that the army is offering guard of honor to visiting head of the government at the Army Pavilion. Army, however, has practice of offering guard of honor to visiting armed force chiefs at its own headquarters in Bhadrakali. 

According to Spokesperson Bhandari, Nepal Army has made necessary preparations to offer guard of honor to Prime Minister Abbasi at the Army Pavilion at 5:30 pm on Monday. Officials at the Prime Minister's Office said that the guard of honor to other visiting head of the state shall also be offered at the Army Pavilion from now onward. 

Prime Minister Abbasi is scheduled to land in Kathmandu at 3:15 pm. Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada is likely to receive him at the VVIP lounge of Tribhuvan International Airport. 

Prime Minister Abbasi is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his Nepali counterpart  K P Sharma Oli at Hotel Yak and Yeti after receiving guard of honor at the Army Pavilion. As the visit comes in the course of Pakistan preparing to host the 19th SAARC Summit, the two prime ministers are scheduled to discuss the issue along with various bilateral issues. Nepal is the current chair of SAARC.

Although Pakistan earlier proposed to host the SAARC Summit in November 2016, this could not take place after India along with three other SAARC nations announced they were pulling out amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir issue. India had then conveyed to the SAARC Chair Nepal that increasing cross-border terrorist attacks in the region had created an environment that was not conducive to the successful holding of the summit.

Prime Minister Abbasi is scheduled to fly back home after paying a courtesy call on President Bidya Devi Bhandari at 10 am on Tuesday. 

Except for their visits in the course of attending SAARC summits, a visit by a Pakistani prime minister to Nepal on a bilateral basis comes after a gap of 24 years. The last Pakistani prime minister to visit Nepal on bilateral issues was Benazir Bhutto in 1994.

 
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