PM Sharif travels to Doha to mourn Qatar’s former emir

By Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif flew into Qatari capital on Monday, bringing with him his older brother, his foreign minister, and a message of condolence for a nation in mourning: Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the man who spent 18 years reshaping Qatar into a global player, was dead at 74.

Sharif was received at Lusail Palace by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the current emir, who inherited the throne from his father in 2013. According to a statement from the Qatari leader’s office, Sharif offered his condolences directly, in person, rather than by phone or cable — a distinction that both sides took pains to note.

“The Prime Minister and Pakistan delegation called on His Highness the Amir of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and conveyed heartfelt condolences at the sad demise of the Father Amir,” Sharif’s office said in a statement issued after the meeting. The visit lasted a single day.

Sharif did not travel alone. At his side was Nawaz Sharif, his elder brother, a three-time former prime minister of Pakistan and the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. Rounding out the delegation were Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, and Attaullah Tarar, the information and broadcasting minister. Qatar’s own deputy prime minister and minister of state for defense, Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrahman bin Hassan bin Ali Al Thani, met the group on the tarmac when they landed.

The prime minister’s office said Sharif had come to Doha “to personally convey condolences on behalf of the people and government of Pakistan to the leadership and people of the state of Qatar,” rather than delegate the gesture to an ambassador or envoy.

Inside the palace, according to the Pakistani statement, Sharif called the elder Sheikh Hamad’s death an “irreparable loss” and praised the former emir’s “visionary leadership, statesmanship, and enduring contributions to Qatar’s remarkable transformation.” He also invoked, the statement said, warmer and more personal memories — recalling the late emir’s “abiding affection for Pakistan” and the visits he made there over the years. Sharif prayed for Sheikh Hamad’s soul and for strength for Qatar’s royal family, the statement said, and reaffirmed what his office called Pakistan’s “steadfast solidarity” with Doha.

Sheikh Tamim, for his part, thanked the delegation for making the trip at all. According to the statement released by his office, the emir singled out Sharif, Nawaz Sharif, and Dar by name, describing their travel to Doha as proof of “a deep-rooted fraternal bonds between the two brotherly countries and peoples.”

The death of Sheikh Hamad, announced by Qatari authorities on Sunday, closes out a chapter in Gulf history that few would dispute reshaped the region. He came to power in 1995 and ruled until 2013, when he did something unusual among Gulf monarchs: he stepped aside voluntarily, handing the emirate to his son while he was still alive. In the years in between, he presided over the kind of transformation that turned a small peninsula nation into a diplomatic and economic force — courting foreign investment, building out Doha’s skyline, and turning Qatar into a mediator nations turned to when quieter channels failed. Qatar has emerged as one of the primary intermediaries in the region’s most combustible dispute — the exchange of strikes between the United States and Iran that, as of Monday, had unraveled months of quiet mediation led jointly by Doha and Islamabad.

Pakistan’s government issued a notification on Sunday declaring Monday a national day of mourning “in expression of fraternal solidarity” with Qatar, and ordering flags lowered to half-staff at government buildings across the country. Qatar is home to hundreds of thousands of Pakistani workers, and the two governments have built out a working relationship that spans energy contracts, investment, and coordinated regional diplomacy — ties that Pakistani officials, in the statements issued on Monday, described as “decades-long” and “enduring.”