KARACHI: The White House said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump is not scheduled to visit Pakistan “at this time”, following widespread media speculation about a possible trip later this year, Dawn.com reported.

Earlier in the day, some local television news channels reported, citing sources, that Trump was expected to visit Pakistan in September. The news channels said that Trump would also visit India after arriving in Islamabad in September.

However, these reports were later withdrawn.

“A trip to Pakistan has not been scheduled at this time,” a White House official said, in response to a flurry of media reports clai­m­ing that Trump would stop over Islamabad on Sept 18.

According to a recent anno­u­ncement from Buckin­gham Palace, President Tru­mp and First Lady Melania Trump are due to visit the UK on a state trip from Sept 17 to 19, making a stopover in Islamabad highly unlikely.

In response to an earlier Dawn.com query on the repo­rts, Foreign Office Spokes­person Shafqat Ali Khan had said: “We have no information about this matter.”

Similarly, a US embassy spokesperson in Islamabad told Reuters, “We have nothing to announce,” and said that the White House might be able to provide confirmation on the president’s schedule.

George W Bush was the last US president to visit Pakistan in 2006, in the wake of the massive 2005 earthquake that devastated parts of Azad Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

Meanwhile, India is due to host the summit of the so-called Quad countries this year, though dates for the meeting have not yet been announced.

The Quad, which includes the US, India, Australia and Japan, is focused on countering China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2025