ISLAMABAD (National Times) Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif left for China on a five-day personal visit on Monday night, Dunya News reported.

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar is accompanying Nawaz Sharif on visit to China.

According to sources, Nawaz Sharif would hold meetings related to the development works of the Punjab province and will also meet the owners of Chinese companies. He will also undergo a medical checkup during his stay in China.

Moreover, the selection of China for his first foreign visit after returning to Pakistan in October last also signifies the importance Nawaz and his party gives to the Asian giant.

Earlier, it was reported that 16 Chinese companies had shown interest in the Nawaz Sharif IT City – a brainchild of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz who has envisaged similar projects in all the major cities of the province – while eight others were ready to work immediately.

Interestingly, the elder Sharif’s sojourn to China comes before the planned visit by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who is expected to hold talks with the Chinese leadership next month.

At the same time, Dar accompanying Nawaz shows how much trust he enjoys by the party leadership and highlights the reason for his appointment as foreign minister.

But perhaps the importance of this visit can be gauged by another fact that it has been planned after the recent Shangla terror attack on Chinese engineers working on the Dasu hydropower Project.

It was followed by a strong commitment expressed by Pakistan to deal with those forces with an iron hand, which have been targeting the Chinese nationals to sabotage the friendly ties between the two nations.