Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to strengthening the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as a unified and effective voice of the Muslim Ummah, Dunya News reported on Sunday.
Dar was talking to OIC Secretary General Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed on the sidelines of the 30th Meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers in Islamabad on Sunday, according to the report. The Associated Press of Pakistan also reported the meeting, saying the two sides discussed matters of mutual interest.
Welcoming the Secretary General on his first visit to Islamabad since assuming office, Dar assured him of Pakistan’s continued support and cooperation in advancing the Organisation’s objectives.
The Secretary General appreciated Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts during the Iran-US conflict to promote peace and stability in the region, the report said.
He also commended Pakistan’s active role in the OIC, including its contributions through COMSTECH, the OIC’s Ministerial Standing Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation, to promoting scientific and technological cooperation among member states.
Both sides agreed to maintain close cooperation within the OIC, according to the report.
They also reiterated their steadfast support for the people of Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir and the realisation of their right to self-determination.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, a Mauritanian diplomat and former foreign minister, was elected as the OIC’s new Secretary General on 27 August 2026 and took the oath of office to lead the 57-member organisation, succeeding Hissein Brahim Taha.
The OIC Secretary General is among the visiting dignitaries in Islamabad for the two-day ECO Council of Ministers meeting, which is being held in the federal capital on 15 and 16 November and is chaired by Dar. The ministerial session was preceded by a meeting of senior officials of the ECO member states, which reviewed the organisation’s activities and programmes and finalised the agenda and draft outcome documents for the ministers to consider.
Pakistan holds the ECO chairmanship for 2026-27 under the theme “Reviving Regionalism for a Resilient ECO”, and is using the meeting to push regional connectivity and deeper economic integration among the organisation’s ten member states.
The OIC, headquartered in Jeddah, is the world’s second-largest intergovernmental organisation after the United Nations, with 57 member states across four continents. Dar had congratulated Ould Cheikh Ahmed on his election as Secretary General in August, after he was chosen by consensus at an extraordinary session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Jeddah.
