Pak expats welcome new envoy
The Pakistani community welcomed Manzoor ul Haq, a career diplomat who has taken up office as the country’s ambassador in Riyadh.
Before taking charge in Riyadh, Haq was Pakistan’s ambassador to Egypt and was well-considered as an expert in the Middle East affairs for his country as he served as the director general of Middle Eastern affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.
A function was organized here by prominent Pakistani businessman and CEO of Al Mina Group Chaudhary Faryad who welcomed the new envoy on behalf of the Pakistani community, which was attended by who's who of the community in Riyadh including heads of voluntary and literary organizations.
Notably, the Kingdom hosts about 1.7 million Pakistanis who occupy some of the top positions in academia, health care, business, construction, hospitality and the private sector.
Speaking at the function, Haq expressed happiness that the Pakistani community in the Kingdom is well versed in literary and cultural programs.
"While in Cairo, we use to request people to attend literary and cultural programs, however, I am delighted to see that the response is quite encouraging here and assured his full cooperation to such gathering with the objective to promote literary and cultural programs and groom young talents," the envoy said.
He was regaled with his welcome by a poet from the community, Javed Akhtar Javed, who recited many couplets leaving the audience spellbound.
Addressing the community, he further said, "I am very excited about my new assignment in the Kingdom and intend to build on good relationship maintained by my predecessors for mutual cooperation."
On community issues, he said, "we will work together to resolve issues as close cooperation will help address concerns."