Sada-e-Watan Sydney ™
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His
Excellency Abdul Malik Abdullah, High Commissioner for Pakistan who completed
his 3 year tenure as High Commissioner for Pakistan in Australia
(A brief Article by Syed Zafar
Hussain, Editor-in-Chief Sada-e-Watan Sydney)
H.E. Abdul
Malik Abdullah, the outgoing High Commissioner for Pakistan, is a man of many
qualities and has a unique sense of serving humanity. He is truly a people’s man
who believes service to community comes before personal interests and concerns
of not only his professional colleagues but of himself. Having made a remarkably
journey to ascend to the highest grade in the civil service of Pakistan, he
remains a humble man. His amiable and pleasant personality made him one of the
most likeable High Commissioner of Pakistan to Australia.
His achievements as a High Commissioner in Australia can be highlighted on
several fronts. However, his greatest achievement was to unite the Pakistani
community living in Australia. He set a precedent of inviting all Pakistanis
from different political, religious, linguistics and sectarian backgrounds to
one platform. The first such meeting was held in Sydney in July 2011, soon after
he assumed charge of his responsibilities in Australia. Since then such meetings
have become a routine affair.
Foreign Minister of Australia
Honourable Julie Bishop and High Commissioner for Pakistan H.E. Abdul Malik
Abdullah
Similarly, he united all the community organisations of Pakistanis in different
cities into an umbrella organization “Pakistan – Australia Council”. He also
galvanized the community to write Urdu as language spoken at home with the local
census instead of ethnic language so as to reflect the true numbers of
Pakistanis in census. One of the benefits of such measure was allocation more
air time for SBS Urdu Programme.
During his term of office in Australia, the delivery of Consular Services
improved remarkably. New website for the High Commission and Consulate General
of Sydney was launched. Machine Readable Passport (MRP) operations were started
both in Sydney and Canberra. Similarly, Form Scanning and Tracking System (FSTS)
was launched for speedy issuance of National Identity Cards for Overseas
Pakistanis (NICOP) for the community. In order to facilitate those Pakistanis
who cannot come on working days, he decided to offer consular services one
Saturday a month both in Sydney and Canberra.
He firmly believes in the philosophy of serving Pakistani community to the
maximum. He made sure that Consular Services are delivered to Pakistani
community efficiently, promptly and transparently. He made himself approachable
to all members of Pakistani community in Australia without any discrimination
and without any regard for the time. He made sure that all e-mails are responded
within 24 hours, without any fail.
The most noteworthy achievement of High Commissioner H.E. Abdul Malik Abdullah
is to finally start the construction of the High Commission building on a plot
leased to Pakistan High Commission by Australian government in 1959.
Construction of the High Commission’s building, 55 years after its lease, is a
major accomplishment as the past attempts could not materialize because of lack
of funds. His determined and persuasive efforts finally convinced the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, to allocate the requisite funds. The building is
now in the final stages of construction and its completion of construction date
is September 01, 2014, just four months away.
H.E. Abdul Malik Abdullah is a well reputed diplomat who is highly regarded for
his professional diplomatic skills by Australian government. He cultivated
useful contacts in the host government. His efforts to further the case of
Pakistan in a passionate manner were instrumental in enhancing the Australian
Development Assistance to Pakistan from A$ 60 million in 2010-2011 to A$ 100
million 2013-2014.
During his term of office, Pakistan - Australia relations remained on an upward
trajectory. There was considerable warming up in the bilateral ties. Since the
takeover of new government in both the countries, there has been a desire to
further strengthen the relations. Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbot has
invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to visit Australia. Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif has accepted the invitation and has expressed his desire to visit
Australia early 2015. This will be the first ever bilateral visit of
democratically elected Prime Minister of Pakistan to Australia.
The High Commissioner successfully conducted the participation of Pakistan
delegation in CHOGM in October 2011. The delegation was led by former Prime
Minister of Pakistan Yousaf Raza Gillani. Hina Rabbani Khar, Foreign Minister of
Pakistan, was also the part of the delegation. He and his team were highly
appreciated for their professional handling of Prime Ministerial delegation from
Pakistan.
During his tenure apart from the Pakistan delegation in CHOGM, several high
ranking officials and political leaders from Pakistan visited Australia. Dr.
Farooq Sattar, Minister for Overseas Pakistanis, Mr. Sajjad Hussain Turi,
Chairman, National Assembly Standing Committee on State and Frontier Region,
Senator Osman Saifullah Khan were among them. 20 delegations of Pakistan Defence
Forces from Army, Navy and Air Force including Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
Committee (JCSC) and Air Chief visited Australia. Just recently, in March 2014,
Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sandila visited Australia.
Understanding that prosperity and development of Pakistan depends on water
security of the country, H.E. Abdul Malik Abdullah provided full-fledged support
to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to
help Pakistan develop Indus water management model. CSIRO will support capacity
building and training of water experts from Pakistan. It will also provide
technical advice on the Indus River System.
He also cultivated useful contacts with key officials of Australia Centre for
International Agriculture Research (ACIAR). ACIAR is helping Pakistan in shaping
its agriculture policies for the benefit of small farmers in dairy, citrus and
mango industries under Agricultural Sector Linkages Programme-II(ASLP-II),
On the trade front, the High Commissioner has the singular honour of finally
securing the market access for Pakistani Mangoes in Australia. First promotional
consignment and two commercial consignments of Pakistani Mangoes arrived
Australia in September 2013. This Australian winter, Pakistanis will be able
enjoy Pakistani Mangoes in Australia to their full.
During his tenure, Pakistan’s export registered steady increase. Australia’s FDI
to Pakistan also increased during the past three years. However, it was the home
remittance from Australia to Pakistan which remarkably doubled in the last three
years.
In short, H.E. Abdul Malik Abdullah during his around three years of tenure in
Australia has made significant achievements on several important fronts. He will
be remembered in Australia as an accomplished diplomat who passionately promoted
the cause of Pakistan and cultivated valuable contacts. He helped developed
useful linkages between Pakistani and Australian businesses, organizations and
people. He was people’s man, who served the Pakistani community in Australia
with utmost dedication and commitment.
.JPG)
Editor-in-Chief Sada-e-Watan Syed Zafar Hussain and High Commissioner H.E. Abdul
Malik Abdullah
