The Pakistani Spectator

Pakistanis in Riyadh showed great compassion when they responded to an appeal from the ambassador of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia and helped raise 810,000 Saudi Riyal in just one night for the flood victims in Pakistan.

The embassy of Pakistan in Riyadh has been working painstakingly night and day, for weeks together, in order to mobilize the Pakistani community in Riyadh to come forward and take part in the relief work. Under the initiatives and guidance of His Excellency the ambassador - Omar Khan Ali Sherzai – a Committee of volunteers was formed who helped arrange a fund-raising program that was hosted this weekend at the community hall of embassy of Pakistan in Riyadh. Attended by around 500 people from all walks of life, this program was a great a success. An unprecedented great show of enthusiasm mixed with patriotic compassion was seen amongst the attendees who kept donating generously towards the relief fund.

The fund-raising program was very ably anchored by Dr. Kazim Niaz – the community welfare attaché – who very eloquently addressed the issue of the devastations in the country from the recent floods and emphasized on all Pakistanis to come forward at this trying time and extend whatever help that they could.

Zahoor Hasan Gilani – Community Welfare Attaché - made a presentation on the floods situation in Arabic for the exclusive benefit of the Saudi guests who had also joined this noble campaign of fund-raising upon an appeal from His Excellency the ambassador Sherzai.

His Excellency the ambassador Sherzai in his opening address thanked all Pakistanis who were present on the occasion. According to him the motherland was faced with the calamity of unprecedented scale and nature and it was the paramount duty of all patriotic Pakistanis to do their mite in sharing the burden of the people and the government of Pakistanis. He expressed his pleasure at the fact that the Pakistani community in Riyadh – and in Saudi Arabia – had responded very positively to his appeal. He said he was very happy to see people rising above all of their political and other affiliations and coming together in a noble cause of extending help to their fellow countrymen and women who were desperately looking towards them for help. Ambassador Sherzai thanked all the countries of the world that had come forward at this difficult time and had extended help in cash and kind. He made special mention of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who had proved that it was a true friend of Pakistan and its people. He thanked the custodian of the two holy mosques – Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud – for ordering to form an air bridge of relief supplies between Riyadh and Islamabad. He also thanked the government and the people of the United States of America, the European Union, UK, France, Canada, Germany, Japan, China, Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, and all those who had contributed in any manner towards extending a helping hand to the government and the people of Pakistan in meeting the challenges emanating from this grave disaster.

The deputy head of the mission – Ayaz Mohammad Khan – made a very informative multi-media presentation on the current status of the disaster and the international help that Pakistan had received so far. The presentation showed many gory images from the devastations from this flood which was very heart-wrenching and mind-blowing too. He informed that the disaster that befell Pakistan and its poor people due to this recent flood was of a colossal nature and scale. He also updated the audience that according to a preliminary survey the flood cost was estimated at $ 40 billion and this figure was growing day by day. In substantiation, he quoted from the international sources that described the damages from this flood to be exceeding what was witnessed in the case of the Tsunami of Dec 2004, Katrina hurricane of Aug 2005 and that of the recent Haiti earth-quake - all of them put together. He added that no country alone could manage to handle the disaster of this tremendous scale and nature. He mentioned that the US could not do so in case of Katrina hurricane and needed international help and even after five years since Katrina happened the city of New Orleans has not been completely rehabilitated. “Pakistan was a poor country which was already stretched too far in its role in “war on terror” so how could she do it all alone? Pakistan badly needs help from its people and those from the international community too”, he added. He appealed to the Pakistani compatriots gathered to come out and donate generously towards the relief fund, in whatever manner and capacity that they could. In his presentation he also updated that the international response has been encouraging as $ 775 has been pledged so far from 56 countries. “But looking at the scale of disaster this was too little and the international community needed to be forthcoming”, he added. He also provided information vis-à-vis the important relief items that were required immediately.

The last session was the collection of fund. Dr. Kazim Niaz informed the attendees that SR 100,000 was already collected and that the fund-raising of the day would begin with this amount already in hand. Helped by the volunteer members of the appointed committee a long session of appeals for donation was carried out. The Pakistanis were seen very excited and forthcoming and the funds in cash and the pledges for the fund kept pouring in large numbers. A big projector screen, installed especially for the occasion, kept presenting the current status of the amount raised so far – with minute by minute details. The amount figures in Saudi Riyal, US Dollar and Pak Rupees were also displayed for the benefit of all to see. It was a great moment as young and old kept contributing and within hours SR 810,000 were raised. Besides this, 65,000 packets of ready-to-use biscuit packs were also donated. A Pakistani Muhib Sherwani pledged to facilitate transportation for relief goods from all over the Kingdom to Riyadh, for onward transfer to Pakistan via Pakistan International Airlines. This gesture was appreciated by huge clapping from the audience. The donation raised included an amount of SR 30,000 being the one-day salaries from the teaching staff of Pakistan International School-Sulaimaniyah. Dr. Kazim announced that embassy of Pakistan would donate the proceeds from two-day salaries of its staffs and officers amounting to SR 20,000 towards the relief fund. He also announced that about 6-ton plane load of relief goods have already been transferred to Pakistan by embassy of Pakistan and that two more plane loads would be transferred soon. The fund-raising also witnessed some interesting and emotional moments during auction of some goods. At one moment, one person purchased a wrist watch for SR 6,000 and donated back for re-auction. Similarly two carpets were also auctioned for SR 12,000 and SR 10,000 each and donated back for re-auction. The carpets were purchased by Khalid Raja. During the campaign one person stood up an announced a personal donation of SR 50,000. All of these gestures of generosity, compassion and patriotism were received very well by huge clapping from the audience present.

This great show of fund-raising was only possible due to the hard work, of several nights and days, from the embassy officials namely, Ayaz Mohammad Khan (Deputy Head of the Mission), Safdar Hayat (Head of Chancery), Dr. Kazim Niaz and Zahoor Hasan Gilani (both Community Welfare Attaché) and of course the leadership of the ambassador His Excellency Omar Khan Ali Shezai. The appointed Committee of volunteers who played a pivotal and an effective role in help raise the funds were represented by Shamshad Siddiqui (Muhibban Pakistan), Dr. Mansour Memon (Doctors Group), Asghar Qureshi and Khalid Choudhry (Board of Governors of Overseas Pakistanis Foundation) Riaz Rathore (Pakistan Peoples Party), Rana Khalid Akram (PML-N), Rana Rauf (Majlis Pakistan), Jalil Hasan (Institution of Engineers), Dr. Rao (Pakistan Culture Group), Javed Gill and Abid Gill (Christian Community in Riyadh), Tariq Soomro (Investor Forum) and Choudhry Rehmat Ali of Pakistan Writers Club.

The program concluded past mid-night with a sumptuous Suhoor-Dinner consisting of the mouth-watering and lip-smacking Desi culinary cuisines.