Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Sunday departed for New York to represent Pakistan at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which will be held on September 22.

PM Kakar will apparently be the first interim prime minister to represent Pakistan at the UN General Assembly.

According to a press release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, the premier will attend the UNGA session during his five-day visit and hold meetings with global leaders on the sidelines of the moot.

The prime minister will also attend an important conference on climate change, the press release stated. Furthermore, PM Kakar is scheduled to interact with the international media and visit prominent US think tanks.

Meanwhile, interim Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani arrived in New York in the afternoon today. He was received by Deputy Permanent Representative at the Pakistan Mission to the UN Aamir Khan and other diplomatic officials.

Earlier this week, at a news briefing in New York, Pakistan’s UN envoy Mu­nir Akram had said that PM Kakar will also participate in a sustainable development goals (SDG) summit during his visit to the UN headquarters.

The United Nations will convene the SDG summit in New York on Sept 18-19, during the General Assem­bly high-level week.

“The prime minister will be speaking about the mobilisation of finance for SDGs,” Ambassador Ak­ram had said. “The main thing, of course, will be his address to the General Assembly, which will be an annual policy statement.”

The prime minister will also make a keynote at another summit on financing for development where “he will talk about how to mobilise private sector finance for development,” the Pakistani envoy had added.

PM Kakar is also expected to underline Pak­istan’s efforts to achieve SDGs in his address to the General Assembly.