President Mohamed Morsi's visit to Islamabad to take part in the Developing Eight Summit acquires particular importance from the fact that it is the first visit by an Egyptian head of state to Pakistan in nearly four decades. Morsi is due to arrive in the Pakistani capital today, 22 November, for the multilateral summit as well as for a bilateral visit during which he will hold talks with Pakistani officials. During the visit, Morsi is scheduled to address a specially convened joint session of Pakistan's parliament in which he will discuss current political issues in the region and ways of promoting Egyptian-Pakistani bilateral relations. Another highlight of his visit will take place at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), which will award the Egyptian president an honorary doctoral degree before he returns to Egypt on 24 November. Both Egypt and Pakistan pin high expectations on the historic presidential visit, not so much because of this summit of developing Islamic countries as because of the series of bilateral talks during which the two sides are expected to conclude a range of economic agreements. Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that Morsi's visit to Islamabad would “open new horizons for Egyptian-Pakistani cooperation” through the bilateral talks that will take place between the Egyptian and Pakistani leaders. She stressed that this was only the second bilateral visit by an Egyptian president to Pakistan since former president Anwar Al-Sadat's visit in 1974. Although former president Hosni Mubarak visited Pakistan in 1983, this was solely to attend a summit meeting and no bilateral talks were held. Khar said that it was important for Egypt and Pakistan to forge closer relations because Egypt is a major regional power and because the two countries share similar views on many Middle Eastern issues, especially the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people's struggle for self-determination. The other countries in the Developing Eight group are Iran, Turkey, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will not attend the meeting this year due to illness, and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Abdel-Razak has also announced that he will not be able to attend. As Pakistan has succeeded Nigeria as chair of the Developing Eight group until 2014, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will be presiding over the summit in which participants will discuss the organisation's charter and its political outlook. Many Pakistani analysts are of the opinion that if Egypt succeeds in building a genuine democracy it will establish itself as a pioneer and a model that will be emulated throughout the Arab region because of the strength of the Egyptian people and because of Egypt's celebrated cultural and civilisational weight in the region. Then, they add, the “domino pieces” that are still clinging to dictatorial power will not be able to remain standing for long. This is all the more reason why Pakistanis have been eager to welcome President Morsi to their country. In Egypt's recent elections, he was the candidate of the Egyptian revolution pitted against the candidate of the old regime. Pakistanis greeted Morsi's victory with jubilation. To celebrate the event, the Jamaat-i Islami Party staged victory parades in Pakistan's major cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan, Hafizabad and Muzzafargarh, in which participants carried large portraits of the newly elected Egyptian president. Speakers at the demonstrations proclaimed that the Morsi victory was a victory for Islam and that it was an inspiration for all Islamist movements throughout the world. The Islamist Jamaat-i Islami Party, headed by Syed Munawar Hassan, has millions of followers throughout the country. An active and dynamic force in the political sphere, and particularly vocal on issues and events in the Islamic world, the party is a political lynchpin that is often courted by other political forces in Pakistan. News of the victory of the Egyptian revolution's presidential candidate reverberated through other political quarters in Pakistan. Mir Shakil Al-Rahman, editor-in-chief of the Pakistani News, was so thrilled that in an editorial to mark the occasion he called upon Pakistani politicians to follow in Morsi's footsteps. The journalist was particularly impressed by the appointment of a Christian as a presidential aide in Egypt. “If we look at this in the light of our own experience of democratic practice we will realise that this splendid decision is of profound significance,” he wrote. Less than three months after Morsi assumed office in June, Pakistanis had cause to cheer again. Not only was Egypt's first civilian president from the Islamist camp, but he also wasted no time in consolidating civilian rule and ending the military's control over government. He simultaneously took firm and decisive steps to unite Egypt's political and religious forces by forging a presidential team representative of all shades of the social and political spectrum. The business community in Pakistan has also been looking forward to the Egyptian president's visit. Egypt is one of the largest investors in Pakistan, and most of these investments are in mobile telephone communications. Orascom has pumped some $2.5 billion into its Pakistani subsidiary Mobilink, and Orascom for Construction and Investment is active in the field of construction contracting through its local subsidiary the Elite Company. A number of smaller Egyptian companies are also operating in Pakistan. Meanwhile, Pakistani investments are on the rise in Egyptian economic free zones, especially in the spinning and weaving industry. Of particular note is the Seif Group, which owns a huge textile factory in Borg Al-Arab with a capital base of $40 million. Pakistani entrepreneurs are also involved in other commercial projects in Egypt, such as the Sofitel Hotel in Zamalek and a branch of the Pakistani National Bank. There are also various joint ventures, such as that between the Egyptian Citadel Company and the Pakistani Hashu Company for petroleum exploration in Sudan (it is estimated that $1 billion has been invested in this project). Another venture in which the private sectors of both countries have joined forces is the TWA project to lay underwater Internet and communications cables between Pakistan and Sharjah and Oman (the Egyptian partner is Orascom). The future is likely to bring a much larger flow of Pakistani capital and investment into Egypt on the part of businessmen with Islamist outlooks who had found it too risky to invest in Egypt under the previous regime. On Egypt's part, it is ready to welcome what government officials describe as all honourable capital investment and it is eager to provide a safe and attractive investment environment to Pakistani businessmen at a time of economic difficulties in Pakistan. These have grown particularly acute due to the fuel and energy crisis that has forced thousands of factories to shut down. Cultural and educational ties between the two countries are also certain to grow stronger. Currently talks are underway between Al-Azhar University in Cairo and the International Islamic University in Islamabad (IIUI) in the hope of increasing Al-Azhar's educational mission to the latter institution. Al-Azhar hopes to raise the number of its professors in the IIUI from 30 to 50 in order to promote the Egyptian cultural presence and influence in Pakistan.
