UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed visits Pakistan as its economy crumbles

UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed visits Pakistan as its economy crumbles

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed arrived in crisis-ridden Pakistan on Tuesday for a two-day visit to meet with the country’s Prime Minister Rahim Shebaz Sharif, as the country plunges into an economic mess. 

The Emirati President was received by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and a number of ministers and senior officials. The visit comes two weeks after Sharif visited Abu Dhabi earlier this month in an effort to seek UAE's help as Islamabad navigates an economic and energy crisis. 

Pakistan’s economy is reportedly near collapse, with a plummeting currency, rising inflation, catastrophic flood damage estimated to have caused over $30 billion in economic losses, according to the World Bank, and drained energy import reserves that have led to regular nationwide blackouts. On Monday, a nationwide power outage in Pakistan left nearly 220 million people without electricity.

#poweroutage in Pakistan is sending the entire country into darkness. Even #Bangladesh which broke away from us is power surplus.

Where have we reached??? pic.twitter.com/jw5Rk6J3Ow

— Faizan Qureshi (@FaizQureshiUK) January 23, 2023

Foreign exchange reserves dropped to a critical level of $4.3 billion in January, enough for three weeks of imports, according to the country’s central bank. 

The UAE agreed to lend Pakistan $1 billion on top of deferring its previous $2 billion loan during