Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, had a meeting with the Vice President of Asian Development Bank, Yingming Yang, in Islamabad. In this meeting the PM called for early groundbreaking and expedition of modernization work on the Main Line-1 (ML-1) railway corridor.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif hosted a breakfast meeting in honour of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President for South, Central, and West Asia, Mr. Yingming Yang.
The meeting reviewed the multi-decade development partnership and chart out priority interventions… pic.twitter.com/pSJ7MKMloh
— Prime Minister’s Office (@PakPMO) September 4, 2026
The ML-1 is a 1733-kilometer railway upgrade stretching from Karachi to Peshawar, a flagship project of the CPEC. The upgradation of the ML-1 remains a national priority to revamp freight logistics, enhance regional trade connectivity, and power industrial growth. However, the project under question would require financing from Pakistani, Chinese and other multilateral sources. Pakistan, to this effect, has already secured 2 billion-USD from ADB for the initial Karachi-Rohri section.
In this meeting the 10 billion USD Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) 2026-2030 was also reviewed. The agenda of the CPS is private sector-led sustainable growth. PM noted that fiscal and governance reforms in Pakistan have brought macroeconomic stability, earned credit rating from Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P. Both stakeholders vowed to materialize the CPS priorities in the shape of initiatives across different sectors such as energy, food, security, IT, Artificial Intelligence, and export competitiveness.
