UAE | General

Pakistani envoy seeks investment

The new Pakistani Ambassador to the UAE had called upon his countrymen residing here to invest in their homeland.

  • By Marten Youssef, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 23:47 September 3, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • We are hosting many meetings with stakeholders to discuss important matters and to prepare me for some of the issues here says Khurshed Ahmad Junejo Pakistani ambassador to the UAE
  • Image Credit: ravindranath/Gulf News

Abu Dhabi: The new Pakistani Ambassador to the UAE had called upon his countrymen residing here to invest in their homeland.

"I already see that there will be a great need for me to focus on mutual investment. I want people from here to see the potential in investing in Pakistan and vice versa," Khurshed Ahmad Junejo, 54, said yesterday in an exclusive interview with Gulf News.

After arriving in the capital from Pakistan, Junejo has shelved two decades of a political career to take the ambassador's posting in one of the most strategic countries in the region, with links dating back to 1971 when Pakistan became the second country to send an ambassador to the UAE.

Sitting in front of a smiling picture of Benazir Bhutto, a personal friend and colleague before she was murdered on December 27 last year, Junejo spoke of a legacy in the same terms used by Bhutto.

"My priority is the people. We are the servants of the people," Junejo, who arrived at the embassy in Abu Dhabi on Monday, said. "I have walked with Bhutto for much of this road, We warned her against going back but she was a brave woman who always said, 'there is a bullet and my name is on it'."

Junejo's love for politics started in 1976 during his university days where he studied chemistry. After joining the student government in the university, he was drawn into a political career. Serving as Member of Parliament, nazim and secretary general for the Pakistan Peoples Party in Larkana, which is Bhutto's hometown, Junejo accepted this post based on the positive experience of his previous visits to the UAE.

"Because this is a new territory for me, we are hosting many meetings with stakeholders to discuss important matters and to prepare me for some of the issues here," Junejo said.

He asserted that he does not want any middlemen between him and the estimated 800,000 Pakistanis living here. "My doors are open and I welcome the public to bring their concerns and desires," he added.

Apart from diplomatic and trade affairs, Junejo has already been briefed on the decade-long debate to reopen the Pakistani Cultural Centre, which was closed in 1997. "We are going to deal with this issue once and for all. It is either going to be a yes or a no and then we will close this issue. But it definitely is a priority for us."

Speaking on the issue of the Pakistani expatriates in the UAE, Junejo asserted, "We are all concerned about what goes on in Pakistan: from terrorism to stability. We want our country to progress and our families to flourish. That's why so many people are here."

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