Special Malaysian envoy called on Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad and delivered an official invitation for the upcoming Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019, as one of the pioneers along with Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, and Qatar.
The summit will discuss on the issues based on the seven pillars – development and sovereignty; trade and investment; and technology and internet governance, integrity and good governance; culture and identity; justice and freedom, peace, and security and defence.
In a PM Office meeting with Malaysian Deputy Foreign Minister Marzuki Bin Haji Yahya, Prime Minister Imran Khan conveyed his thanks for the invitation and said he looked forward to participating in the summit being held in Kuala Lumpur from December 18 to December 20 this year.
In Malaysia, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is also chairman of the Kuala Lumpur Summit, said that heads of Pakistan, Qatar, and Turkey have agreed to attend the first gathering at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.
He said that other countries also had requested and expressed interest to attend the summit. “We need to have Muslims supporting this initiative but to begin, we have to do it in a small way, and I hope that we can carry this message all over the world,” he said.
With the theme, the role of development in achieving national sovereignty, the summit would be attended by 450 Muslim leaders, thinkers, intellectuals and scholars from different parts of the world. On the selection of five countries to be the nucleus or core group of the summit, he said that the group must be small or smart initially.
Dr Mahathir said that a lot of Muslim countries are preoccupied or facing civil war. So the summit selects small countries that will have the time and effort to find solutions that is why we choose these five countries. “I hope later on, others will join,” he said.
When asked if the summit is an alternative to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for the betterment of Muslims, he said that OIC is a very big organisation and it is difficult for us to have such a big organisation to the conference. “We do hope the other OIC members will join in,” he said.