Sada-e-Watan
Sydney ™
sadaewatan@gmail.com
NEW PREMISES OF THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF PAKISTAN SYDNEY TO FURTHER FACILITATE OUR VALUED CLIENTS & COMMUNITY MEMBERS
The New Premises of Consulate General of Pakistan Sydney will have larger Reception area, Conference Hall, more routine Consular Services, Convenient Location and better Felicities for Everyone
It
is a matter of immense pleasure and great satisfaction to announce that the
Government of Pakistan has approved the hiring of the new Chancery premises of
the Consulate General of Pakistan in Sydney. Insha Allah (God willing), we
shall be starting our operations at Level 3, 109 Pitt Street, Sydney CBD NSW
2000 from Thursday, 18 February 2016. This move has been aimed at further
facilitating the Australian Pakistani Community and other Australian clients
who were finding the existing premises for consular services, too congested and
insufficient.
In 2007, when the existing office premises of the Consulate
were established at Level 7 of 32 Martin Place Sydney, there were fewer
Pakistanis in Australia and the demand for consular services was also very
less. With the passage of time and, particularly after the introduction of the
facility of Machine Readable Passports (MRP) in May 2013, the number of
visitors has been increasing significantly in Sydney, with every passing month.
The small waiting room for the visitors, which was deemed sufficient prior to
2013, had become too congested in last three years. But we had to continue
there so as to complete the term of the lease, which ended on 31 December
2015.
In last over six months, our team in the Consulate had been
effectively working on exploring various options to set up a bigger Consular
Hall to further improve our facilities for the welfare and convenience of the
visitors. We effectively sensitized the authorities in Islamabad, particularly
in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Commerce, to obtain necessary
approvals. The unflinching support of Her Excellency Ms. Naela Chohan, the High
Commissioner for Pakistan in Canberra is praiseworthy, without which the
achievement of this milestone would not have been possible.
Finally, we
are moving to our new office premises on Saturday, 13 February 2016. After
settling down in our new offices, we shall start functioning effectively over
there from Thursday, 18 February 2016. The inconvenience caused to the
community and our valued clients, during three days of shifting (from 15 to 17
February 2016) is highly regretted. Even during this period, our efficient and
hardworking staff will not hesitate to facilitate the community / other
clients, if there will be any emergency situation. However, for routine
consular services, including MRP processing, the staff in the High Commission
at Canberra will welcome all our clients from Sydney / New South Wales.
The following features of the new office premises are worth mentioning:
a) The new premises are spacious as compared to the existing office;
b) The
location is more convenient, as it is only 200 meters from the main platforms
of the Wynyard Train Station and York Street Bus Terminals.
c) The Waiting
Area is at least three times bigger than the existing arrangement. We will
accommodate at least 60 people at one time in the new premises as compared to
only 25 in the existing office.
d) A new and spacious Consular Hall is being
established with better facilities for the visitors.
e) There was no
conference room in the existing office. Now we shall have a separate Board Room
for organizing B2B and other meetings of the visiting Pakistani business
delegations and exporters with their Australian counterparts.
f) We have also
ordered installation of an efficient and user friendly telephone system through
Telstra Business Solutions, the market leader in the telecommunication industry
in Australia.
The service quality and efficiency of the Consulate General
has remained satisfactory, at least in last three years, due to regular
incremental improvements that we have been introducing since early 2013. The
initiative of hiring new premises will further improve the service quality of
the Consulate. Sky is the limit for us and we intend to continuously better our
standards and improve the environment to the satisfaction of our valued clients
and the community.
Abdul Aziz
Uqaili
Consul General & Trade Commissioner
