ZUBAIR QURESHI
A reception marking the National Day of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Wednesday evening, turned into a lively gathering of diplomats, ministers, government functionaries—both from the civil and the army departments—religious scholars and parliamentarians.
This reflects how important Egypt is for the Pakistani people and the government. It also demonstrated the popularity of Ambassador Tarek Dahroug and his spouse Aliaa Sarwat not only in diplomatic circles but also with both the government and the opposition parliamentarians.
Egyptian flags, costumes, colours and cuisine lent extra appeal to the venue, the Islamabad Serena Hotel. The ceremony started with national anthems of Pakistan and Egypt while a pyramid shaped cake was also cut on the occasion.
Federal Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman, Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar, Senator Sehar Kamran, PM’s Special Representative on Religious Harmony, Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Ashrafi, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Raja Zafarul Haq, Chairman of the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Abdul Khabeer Azad and a large number of guests attended the reception and felicitated the Egyptian ambassador, his wife, Egyptian nationals and staff of the embassy on the auspicious occasion.
In her brief speech, Sherry Rehman while congratulating the Egyptian ambassador recalled her last year’s visit to Sharm El-Sheikh for participating in the Conference of Parties (COP27) moot and commended the Egyptian government for making extraordinary arrangements for the international summit. It also highlights how important it is for the Arab world, particularly Egypt, to counter the climate-related challenges, global warming and uncertain conditions.
She paid tributes to the Egyptian government for hosting the COP27 that agreed to establish the ‘loss and damage’ funds for the countries that are most adversely affected by natural disasters.
During the conversation with the ambassadors and diplomats of different countries like France’s Nicolas Galey, Indonesia’s Adam Tugio, Nepal’s Tapas Adhikari and India’s Dr Suresh Kumar in the sidelines of the reception, it was emphasized that Pakistan could also follow the example of Egypt by preserving and promoting its rich Buddhist heritage sites in Taxila and other parts of KP.
Egypt is earning millions of dollars by facilitating tourists who arrive every year to visit its pyramids. Pakistan too can facilitate the Buddhsit tourists’ visits to the country’s ancient sites, they said. They welcomed the recently-held International Gandhara Symposium and held that if proper steps like security, facilitation centres, food, stay and transport, etc were taken, Pakistan could attract hundreds and thousands of tourists to Buddhist sites every year.
