Muhammad Umar Shah, Chairman and the National Executive Council of Diplomatic Business organized an award ceremony for His Excellency Mr Bakheet Ateeq Al-Remeithi, Consul General of the United Arab Emirates to recognize the humanitarian and philanthropic services of the UAE for the people of Pakistan during flood in Sindh and Balochistan.
The event started with the recitation from the Holy Quran, followed by the national anthems of Pakistan and the UAE.
In his welcome address Mr Ali Vazir, Secretary of the Club highlighted the services of the Club, mentioning that the Club has so far held more than 10 events in the last 1 year which were graced by diplomats from the USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, China, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Iran, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on the one hand and more than 500 heads of corporate sector, senior bureaucrats and political leaders. The Club has been playing a pivotal role in the promotion of business between the business community and beyond borders through foreign Consulates. The Club is planning to organize single country exhibitions in UAE, Indonesia and Turkey. Different trade delegations from Turkey, Korea and Japan have been welcomed by the Club in Pakistan as well. Regarding bilateral trade between Pakistan and UAE he emphasized upon the business community to work on the huge trade imbalance of over $4 billion in favor of the UAE and sought assistance from His Excellency so that Pakistan can rely on trade instead of aid.
Talking about the flood assistance, he highlighted the assistance of UAE which started as early as 6th August, 2022. More than 57 air-flights and a ship loaded with 47 containers of humanitarian goods have reached Pakistan so far. UAE has built medical camps where Pakistani and UAE Medical staff are working day and night for the affectees. Apart from the above, the UAE Consulate and Embassy have been buying goods locally from Karachi and distributing to the affectees as well.
In his speech His Excellency Mr Bakheet Ateeq Al-Remeithi, Consul General of the United Arab Emirates thanked the business community and especially Mr Muhammad Umar Shah, Chairman, Diplomatic Business Club for awarding him on behalf of the Government of the UAE. He very frankly briefed the reasons for this extra-ordinary assistance from UAE which has been there for decades since UAE rightly recognizes Pakistan as the first country to recognize the creation of UAE and the role played by Pakistani leadership and the workforce in the development of UAE including Emirates airlines.
His Excellency very rightly responded to the Club Secretary’s request and informed that a Trade specialist will soon be joining the UAE Consulate in Karachi to help promote bilateral trade between Pakistan and the UAE. He pledged to extend all support to the business community of Pakistan who seek investment and technical collaboration with the UAE.
M/s Muhammad Umar Shah, Shahid Feroz, Ahsan Mehanti, Ajay Khatwani, Sohail Wajahat and Urshia Husain presented a shield to His Excellency Mr Bakheet Ateeq Al-Remeithi, Consul General of the UAE for the extra ordinary humanitarian efforts of the UAE for the flood affectees of Pakistan.
A short video prepared by Aroo Aree Studio about the humanitarian efforts of the UAE was also played during the event.
Mr Shahid Feroz, President, Port Grand in his Vote of Thanks paid homage to His Excellency and also thanked the big number of corporate heads that had gathered to applause for this extra-ordinary effort by the UAE for the people of Pakistan.
Finally, a Pak-UAE cake-cutting was held which was attended by Mr Muhammad Umar Shah, Mr Shahid Feroz, Sohail Wajahat, Ahsan Mehanti and the lady entrepreneurs present.
The event culminated at dinner at Port Grand. A big team of electronic and print media personnel were present to record and broadcast the event.
