Kathmandu, March 2 Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will be in Nepal on a two-day visit on Monday. Abbasi is visiting Nepal to congratulate Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on his election to the country’s top executive post, according to UML leader Rajan Bhattarai. “He will arrive on Monday and return on Tuesday,” said Bhattarai, adding PM Abbasi will also pay a courtesy call on President Bidhya Devi Bhandari. The Embassy of Pakistan in Kathmandu confirmed PM Abbasi’s planned Nepal visit, but said it was yet to receive official confirmation about the itinerary. “I can only tell that PM Abbasi will be visiting Nepal in the first week of March. Once we get an official confirmation we will make a formal announcement,” said an official at the embassy, adding that the main purpose of the visit is to congratulate PM Oli. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet made any announcement about the planned visit of the Pakistani prime minister. “Hopefully, an official announcement will be made tomorrow,” said a high-level MoFA official. Abbasi will be the first head of government to visit Nepal after Oli assumed the PM’s post. PM Oli and Abbasi are expected to discuss issues relating to bilateral relations, as well as those relating to South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Nepal is the current chair of the SAARC. The SAARC summit has not been held since the 18th summit that was held in Kathmandu in November 2014. The 19th summit, which was slated to be held in Islamabad, in November 2016 was postponed after India announced that it would boycott the summit following diplomatic spat between the two neighbours. Later, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives also pulled out, resulting in an indefinite postponement of the summit. Nepal was elected chair of SAARC for two years during the 18th SAARC Summit held in Kathmandu in November 2014. Nepal was scheduled to hand over the chair of SAARC to Pakistan after the 19th summit. SAARC is a South Asian regional body founded in 1985, comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.