Dubai: Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has appointed Javed Malik, a prominent Dubai-based Pakistani businessman, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Gulf News has learnt.
Malik is currently serving as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Investment and Trade in the Gulf. He told Gulf News that he would continue to hold both the titles.
This is Malik’s third diplomatic assignment; he served as Pakistan’s Ambassador-at-Large between 2008 and 2010 and was appointed the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy in 2012.
Malik said that he would take charge of his office as ambassador in Bahrain in the third week of January.
Malik has been actively working on various economic diplomacy initiatives aimed at highlighting the business, trade and investment opportunities in Pakistan. He has organised various conferences, seminars and led several business delegations to Pakistan comprising expatriate Pakistanis as well as European, Canadian, German and Gulf-based businessmen. Malik is also the president of the Diplomat Business Club in the UAE.
While thanking Sharif, Malik said: “ I express my profound gratitude to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the trust and confidence that he placed on me, and will do my best to serve my country sincerely, honestly and with dedication of purpose.”
He said that his focus would be to strengthen Pakistan’s long-standing relations with the Gulf, which is home to more than 4 million Pakistanis,
After his recent appointment, Malik has been meeting with Pakistani leadership including President Mamnoon Hussain, Sharif, Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir, and others.
In his meeting with the Prime Minister, Malik told him about various initiatives being planned to expand Pakistan’s bilateral relations with the Kingdom of Bahrain and the GCC region.
During the meeting, Sharif said that Pakistan and Kingdom of Bahrain share a deep-rooted relationship, which has a huge scope of expansion. He directed Malik to expend his best efforts to expand the trade, commercial and strategic relations between the two countries.
