Punjab Chief Minister pitches the province as a halal food supplier and plans an investment roadshow in Riyadh, as she backs the kingdom against Houthi attacks under the Makkah defence pact
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif and Saudi Arabia’s new ambassador, Dr Rajeh Albugamy, agreed on Wednesday to aim for more than Rs500 billion in exports of livestock, beef, poultry, mangoes, potatoes and shrimp from the province to the kingdom, and discussed holding a Punjab investment roadshow in Riyadh.
The meeting in Lahore came a week after the envoy formally took charge in Islamabad. It combined a trade pitch with strong political signalling: Maryam Nawaz called the Makkah defence agreement signed in August “the beginning of a new chapter” in bilateral relations and condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi cities, including attempts to target Makkah and Madinah.
“The people of Pakistan and Punjab stand shoulder to shoulder with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” she said, adding that shared economic strength was a reliable guarantee of collective security.
From Lahore’s farms to Saudi tables
The two sides discussed using Punjab’s agricultural and livestock base to raise exports of meat, poultry, fruit and vegetables, and Maryam Nawaz said the province could become a reliable supplier of halal-certified food to the kingdom. They also discussed staging a PIVOT roadshow in Riyadh to draw Saudi investment into Punjab, though no date was announced.
The target is ambitious relative to current trade. Pakistan exported $530 million worth of meat and meat preparations to all markets in the 2025-26 fiscal year, according to government figures, with Saudi Arabia buying roughly 30,000 tonnes of red meat a year worth about $167 million, second only to the UAE. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia agreed in August to lift Pakistani agricultural and food exports to the kingdom to $3 billion within two years, with rice, red meat, fruit and green fodder as priorities.
Meeting that goal will depend on problems that have held exporters back for years. Foot-and-mouth disease, weak animal traceability and uneven slaughterhouse certification have limited access to Gulf markets, and the federal government has ordered an action plan to eradicate the disease and certify abattoirs. Punjab has tried to tackle the farm end of the chain, sending a mobile veterinary fleet to livestock farmers’ doorsteps.
For Punjab’s mango and potato growers, the Saudi market offers a large, nearby outlet with demand for halal and Pakistani produce driven partly by the kingdom’s large Pakistani community.
Remittances and a long relationship
Maryam Nawaz thanked the Saudi leadership for its economic and financial support to Pakistan and noted that Saudi Arabia was the country’s largest source of remittances. State Bank figures show workers in the kingdom sent home about $9.78 billion in the 2025-26 fiscal year, out of record total inflows of $41.6 billion, ahead of the UAE at about $8.8 billion. Those inflows have helped narrow Pakistan’s current account deficit this year.
She described the decades-long relationship of trust between the Saudi leadership and her father, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, as an example of enduring ties. Nawaz Sharif spent part of his exile in Saudi Arabia after the 1999 military coup, a period that cemented the family’s links with Riyadh.
The chief minister also paid tribute to the previous Saudi ambassador, Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki, who left earlier this year after a tenure of nearly nine years, and invited Saudi citizens to visit Punjab’s tourist sites. She conveyed her good wishes to King Salman, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, having felicitated them on Saudi National Day last month.
The defence pact in the background
The meeting took place against a tense regional backdrop. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye signed a joint defence agreement in Makkah on August 7 under which an attack on one is treated as an attack on all; Islamabad has described it as purely defensive and open to other states. The military’s spokesman confirmed this month that Pakistani troops are in Saudi Arabia under the arrangement.
Houthi forces in Yemen have since stepped up attacks on the kingdom. Saudi authorities said strikes on airports in Riyadh and Abha on October 6 to 8 killed six people and injured dozens, including a Pakistani national, after an attempted drone attack on Makkah in September and a drone strike on a Madinah grid station at the start of October. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the airport strikes and told the Houthis to stop.
Maryam Nawaz said Pakistan fully supported Saudi Arabia’s right to defend its people, cities and critical infrastructure, and expressed sorrow over the loss of life.
The envoy’s view
Albugamy, a retired Saudi major general with a doctorate in human resource management from Brunel University London, was among eight ambassadors sworn in before the Crown Prince in July and presented his credentials to President Asif Ali Zardari last week.
In Lahore, he praised the deep-rooted, fraternal and strategic ties between the two countries and pledged to strengthen cooperation in all fields. He thanked Pakistan’s government, armed forces and people for supporting measures to safeguard the kingdom’s security, stability and territorial integrity.
He also offered a nod to his host city. Punjab’s heritage, from Mughal monuments to its living traditions, was an attraction in its own right, he said, and Lahore’s hospitality, food and warmth were known well beyond Pakistan.
Officials did not say when the Riyadh roadshow would take place or how the Rs500 billion export target would be measured or phased. Exporters in Lahore will be watching for follow-up on Saudi import approvals for Pakistani meat processors and on certification support, which will decide whether the goal set on Wednesday turns into shipments.
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