The Pakistan High Commission, Lon-don organized a “Councillors Conven-tion-2018” in London on 24 February 2018. This was the 3rd Councillors Con-vention since 2015. About 200 British Pakistani Councillors, Lord Mayors and Mayors from across the UK attended the Convention. Lord Nazir Ahmed, Paul Scully, Conservative MP, Ruth Cadbury, Labour MP, Councillor Hanzala Malik, former Member of Scottish Parliament, community leaders, professionals, acad-emicians, students and mediapersons were among the attendees.

The purpose of the Convention was to carry forward the dialogue initiated in the previous Councillors Conventions and reach out to the community through the elected leadership of the British Pa-kistanis. The event also aimed to provide a platform to the elected representatives of the British Pakistanis to get together and share ideas on common causes re-lated to the Pakistani community in the UK. Another purpose of the Convention was to celebrate the achievements of the British Pakistanis in various walks of life in the UK as well as identify the inad-equacies and areas where more efforts

High Commissioner calls upon Councillors to put across Pakistan’s viewpoint on important issues to their MPs

were needed to be made.H.E. Syed Ibne Abbas, Pakistan High

Commissioner to the UK, said in his re-marks that the Councillors Convention is an important platform to connect with our diaspora and forge better under-standing on issues of common interest.

The High Commissioner stated that Councillors/Mayors make the first tier of Westminster Democracy and many of them would make their way to the British Parliament; hence, engagement with them is of vital importance.

Speaking about Pakistan-UK bilat-eral relations, the High Commissioner said the two countries have excellent relations in various areas of common interest. However, he expressed disap-pointment over UK’s sponsoring the move to put Pakistan on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Grey List; a move he termed was in total disregard to the sacrifices made by Pakistan in fight against terrorism. He called upon the Councillors/Mayors and members of the Community to lobby with their MPs to put across Pakistan’s viewpoint on important national, regional and in-ternational issues.

The High Commissioner also con-demned the human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir and urged the international community to stop these violations immediately.

Lord Nazir Ahmed, Paul Scully MP, Hanzal Malik, former MSP addressed the inaugural session and made obser-vations and recommendations relevant to the community and Pakistan-UK re-lations.

During the two main sessions, dis-cussions took place along the follow-ing themes relevant to the Pakistani community, namely: ‘Diaspora’s role in furthering Pakistan-UK Socio-Eco-nomic and Political Relationship’ and ‘Youth Engagement and Women Em-powerment’. While appreciating the contribution of the British Pakistanis in the social and economic life of the Britain, panellists emphasized on the enhanced focus on education for chil-dren, higher education for youth, active role of women in various walks of life, and respect for plurality and diversity while retaining one’s own culture, iden-tity and heritage. It was noted that there are great opportunities on offer for the

Pakistani community, which must be benefitted from to better integrate into the mainstream British society.

Sardar Masood Khan, President AJ&K attended the Convention as a special guest and apprised the attendees about the dire human rights violations in Kashmir. He also gave an update on the development projects in the AJ&K.

The panellists included Ruth Cadbury MP; Mr Julian Hamilton, Chairman Pakistan Britain Business Council, Councillor Asghar Butt; Councillor Yasmin Dar; Councillor Sabia Hus-sain; Keith Allen Bennett, CPEC expert; Pasha Bocarie, TV Actor and tourism promoter; Councillor Shahid Younas; Councillor Dr Ayesha Raza; Saba Na-seem, cricket coach BEM BCA; Dr Sarah Khan; Zahra Shah, CEO British Pakistan Foundation and Councillor Afzal Shah.

Suniya Qureshi, and Aneeqa Malik moderated one session each. The event was held in a local restaurant in London.

“Councillors Convention-2018”

In an impressive demonstration of solidarity with the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), the British Parliamentarians termed gross human rights violations of the Kashmiri peo-ple shocking. They urged India to im-mediately stop atrocities in IOK and resolve the long-standing dispute of Kashmir according to the resolutions of the United Nations. The Parliamen-tarians were speaking at a seminar on Kashmir, jointly organized by the Pa-kistan High Commission London and Jammu Kashmir Self- Determination Movement International, in the British Parliament on 05 February 2018.

Several Lords, MPs and MEPs ad-dressed on the occasion. Besides, a large number of Mayors, Councillors, Kash-miri leaders, members of the civil society and human rights organizations, Kash-miri community and media persons at-tended the seminar. Condemning Indi-

an brutalities in Kashmir, Acting High Commissioner Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri urged the international community to come forward and call upon India to end its state terrorism in Kashmir. Mr

Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal meets with British leadership in London

British Parliamentarians term human rights abuses in Kashmir shocking

Chaudhri said: “Pakistan has proposed to the UN Secretary General to appoint a Special Envoy on Kashmir. I would like to iterate our proposal of a fact finding mission of the British Parliamentarians

to both sides of Kashmir.”The speakers voiced deep concerns

over atrocities and human rights viola-tions in Indian Occupied Kashmir by the Indian security forces, and demanded an immediate end to the draconian laws being exercised by the Indian security forces there.

Raja Najabat Hussain, Chairman Jammu Kashmir Self-Determination Movement International expressed the hope that later this year another debate on Kashmir would be held in the British Parliament to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri people and to underscore the importance of the resolution of the dis-pute for regional peace and prosperity.

Kashmir Solidarity Day is observed every year on 05 February to demon-strate support for the right to self-deter-mination of the people of Jammu & Kashmir.  

Mr Ahsan Iqbal, Interior Minister of Pakistan, who visited the UK last month, met with the British leadership and dis-cussed cooperation and collaboration in areas of common interest.

Mr Ahsan Iqbal met with Rt Hon Bo-ris Johnson, British Foreign Secretary, and apprised him of Pakistan’s successful fight against extremism and terrorism which resulted in significant improve-ment in the security of the country. The Foreign Secretary commended Paki-stan’s counter terrorism efforts.

In his meeting with Rt Hon David Gauke, Secretary of State for Justice, de-tailed discussions were held on ways and means to re-operationalise the prisoners exchange programme between the two countries. Cooperation in prosecution reforms was also discussed. In this re-gard, Minister Ahsan Iqbal proposed to form a Joint Working Group (JWG) between the two countries. The Secre-tary agreed to the proposal.

Mr Ahsan Iqbal also met with Lord Tariq Ahmad, UK’s Minister of State for Commonwealth and UN, and discussed a wide range of bilateral relations per-taining to enhancing the role of Com-monwealth, development cooperation,

Mr Ahsan Iqbal, Interior Minister of Pakistan, meeting with Mr. David Gauke, UK’s Secretary of State for Justice in London

Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, Interior Minister of Pakistan delivering a talk at the Inter-national Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London

bilateral trade and diaspora.Ihe Interior Minister had anoth-

er meeting with Mrs Caroline Nokes, Minister of State for Immigration. He specifically raised the problems being faced by Pakistani students and busi-ness people in getting British visas. Mrs Caroline assured the Minister that she would look into the matter and all possi-

ble facilitation would be extended to the Pakistani students and business people.

Besides, the Minister met with Mr. John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury. The two sides held detailed discussion on bilateral cooperation in areas of economy and finance.

The Minister also interacted with the Pakistani diaspora and invited them to

invest in Pakistan where there are enor-mous opportunities are arising due to China Pakistan Economic Corridor. He also addressed briefed the media on lat-est developments in Pakistan.

Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, Interior Minister of Pakistan shaking hand with Mr Boris Johnson, British Foreign Secretary (L)and Mr. John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury (R) in London

Prime Minister’s Youth Programme beneficiaries cross 1.1 Million

High Commission to send Six Promising British Pakistani Youth on Pakistan Trip: Syed Ibne Abbas

Six promising British-Pakistani youth will be sent to Pakistan this year on sponsorship of the Pakistan High Com-mission, London. This was announced by H.E. Syed Ibne Abbas, Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK at a third day-long Councillors Convention held in London on 24 February 2018.

The initiative has been named as “Ex-plore Pakistan”.

Speaking about this programme, the High Commissioner said:

“The initiative aims at connecting the British Pakistani youth with their country of origin as well as their cultural heritage. Under this programme, young persons from the diaspora will be able to explore various facets of life in Pa-kistan and know more about progress

and development taking place in the country. It would also enable them to

build bridges between the peoples of Pakistan and the UK.”

Explore Pakistan programme would offer a unique opportunity for the stu-dents to experience development and progress in various areas, including in-frastructure business, trade, investment, financial and information technology and social entrepreneurship.

To select suitable candidates, a com-mittee comprising Officers of the High Commission has been formed that would formulate a merit-based selection criterion and work out other modalities of the programme. More information about the programme will be shared through media and Mission’s website in due course.

Expressing satisfaction on overall progress of various components of Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, Prime Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that youth programme, initiated in 2013, was reflective of the priorities of PML-N government to help the youth in becoming the most productive asset of the society and thus enabling them to contribute towards overall socio-eco-nomic development of the country.

This he said during a briefing given by Chairperson Prime Minister’s Youth Programme at Prime Minister’s Office.

Ms. Leila Khan, Chairperson Prime

Minister’s Youth Programme said, “Un-der PM’s Youth Business Loan Scheme, we have so far disbursed around 22,000 loans worth Rs. 22 Billion among edu-cated and skilled youth, both men and women, for the promotion of entrepre-neurship culture in the country.”

These young entrepreneurs are not only running their own businesses successfully but are also providing em-ployment to number of other youths around them. 91% recovery rate of the scheme, the highest in SME sector fi-nancing, speaks of its success. Under PM’s Youth Skill Development Program,

100,000 unemployed youth have been trained in around 100 demand-driven vocational trades across the country,

Ms. Leila Khan, Chairperson Prime Minister’s youth program, chairing a feedback session with the Pakistani delegation who participated in the 19th World Festival of youth and students 2017 in Sochi, Russia from 14-22 October

“Explore Pakistan” programme

whereas 100,000 more youth will com-plete training by the end of 2018.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbassi

Karachi is a true megacity. It’s the second largest city in the world by population (po-litical boundary) and the economic power-house of Pakistan. It is also the main seaport for the country and as such is home to Pa-kistan’s largest corporations. To service this population, Karachi has built a reputation for it’s magnificent malls and countless eateries.It’s not surprise that it’s known as the City of Lights due its nightlife.

All year round many of visit Karachi to visit family or on business but what can we do there as a tourist?

The most popular draw is also one of the most recent sites - the Jinnah Mausoleum, the final resting place of Quaid-e-Azam but also that of his sister, Fatima Jinnah and the first prime minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan.

Karachi also boasts some fabulous coloni-al architecture that now house government offices or state institutions. Ones not to be missed are: The Karachi Port Trust, Frere Hall, Hindu Gymkhana, Empress Market and of course the Mohatta Palace is a must. Many of these buildings are also museums and art galleries so culture vultures will be spoilt for choice.

Going back even further in history and located on the edge of the city are the Chaukhandi Tombs. This is an early Islamic cemetery dating back to the Mughal period. The tombs are remarkable for their elaborate sandstone carvings such that the site is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.

For those looking to escape the bustling metropolis, one doesn’t have to venture far to experience the city beaches such as at Hawkes Bay, Sandspit and French Beach to name a few. But for those with a sense of adventure why not experience the pristine beaches and turquoise waters along Makran Coast near the Hingol National Park.

And once you’re back from a day at the beach what better way to end the day then at The Port Grand Food and Entertainment Complex. Opened in 2011 and located on Napier Mole Bridge, it’s on a site that is very significant to the history of Karachi.Stretch-ing along 300m of the old bridge and sprea ding over an area of 20,000m2

It is cited as the largest food street of Asia. What better place to sample something all Karachiites adore – a great Biryani!