PM Shehbaz Sharif departs for Iran

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday embarked on an Islamic Republic of Iran visit to offer condolences on the sad demise of President Dr. Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who embraced martyrdom in a tragic helicopter crash on Sunday.

The premier is accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister, Mohsin Naqvi and Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ata Tarar.

PM Shehbaz Sharif will call on the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Imam Khamenei and meet the Acting President of Iran, Dr. Mohammad Mokhber, to convey condolences on behalf of the people and Government of Pakistan.

Funeral rites for the late president and his entourage began on Tuesday with tens of thousands of black-clad mourners in attendance in the city of Tabriz and the Shiite clerical centre of Qom.

From Tehran, the bodies will be moved to South Khorasan province before being transferred to Raisi’s home city of Mashhad in the northeast, where he will be buried on Thursday evening after funeral rites at the Imam Reza shrine.

Raisi’s helicopter crashed Sunday on a fog-shrouded mountainside in northern Iran on the way to the city of Tabriz after the group attended the inauguration of a dam project on the border with Azerbaijan.

A huge search and rescue operation was launched, involving help from Turkey, Russia and the European Union. State television announced Raisi’s death early on Monday.