Arab News captures scenes set for arrival of Saudi Crown Prince in Islamabad

In an Islamabad supermarket, a student reads a print copy of Arab News which was published and circulated on Saturday, Feb 16, 2019, ahead of the crown prince’s arrival. (AN photo)

Portraits of (right to left) Prime Minister Imran Khan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and President Dr. Arif Alvi on Constitution Avenue, in front of Parliament House in Islamabad. (AN photo)

Workers are busy putting up welcome banners and decorating the roads here in Islamabad ahead of a celebratory welcome for the Saudi Crown Prince who will arrive on Sunday. (AN photo)

Islamabad’s Constitution Avenue, in front of Prime Minister Secretariat and President House, is decorated with banners, colorful lights and the national flags of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to welcome Saudi dignitaries and the entourage of the crown prince. (AN photo)

A copy of Arab News next to a portrait of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in The Nation, are displayed at a local bookshop and newspaper stall. (AN photo)

National Flags of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have been hoisted up in different parts of Islamabad ahead of the crown prince’s two-day visit. (AN photo)

Banners displayed at different avenues in Islamabad deliver strong messages of Pak-Saudi relationships. Some of them read, “Pakistan-Saudi Brotherhood for Peace, Progress and Development.” (AN photo)

The Pakistan army has been assigned the security of the royal guests and troops have been deployed in Islamabad’s Red Zone. (AN photo)

“We Welcome His Royal Highness to His Second Home,” reads a banner on a bridge at the Islamabad Expressway, below a waving queue of the national flags of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. (AN photo)

Ahead of the crown prince’s visit, Pakistan army’s 111-brigade troops have been patrolling Islamabad. (AN photo)

Life-sized banners with portraits of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and President Dr. Arif Alvi in front of Islamabad’s diplomatic enclave. (AN photo)

ISLAMABAD: The federal capital, Islamabad, has been dressed up in anticipation of the Saudi prince’s arrival here on Sunday, its streets and avenues decorated with welcome banners, colored lights and the national flags of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The crown prince will be received personally by Prime Minister Imran Khan and accorded a historic red-carpet welcome along with a 21-gun salute.

During the prince’s two-day visit, Pakistan is expecting to sign off on a raft of investment deals and other agreements with Saudi royals and businessmen worth over $10 billion, including the establishment of an oil refinery in the port city of Gwadar in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.

Ahead of the prince’s arrival, the Arab News team traveled to several parts of Pakistan’s capital city to document the historic preparations made for the royal welcome.