Dubai: Second session of Overseas Pakistanis Forum will be held in Dubai on Friday to discuss issues facing the Pakistani community.
“Senior officials from Pakistan will be present at the forum to discuss issues with some leading Pakistani community members in the UAE,” said Javed Malik, Pakistan’s Ambassador At Large.
He said that one of the goals of the Forum was to provide a platform to the Pakistani community in the UAE to connect directly with the decision makers in the government of Pakistan. Senior officials from the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) will be present at the Forum to interact with the community members.
Malik, who is also the Vice Chairman of the Forum and Member of the Board of Governors of the OPF, said that another goal of the Forum was to unite the UAE based Pakistanis on a single platform. Currently, presidents of almost all the UAE based Pakistani Associations and business councils are the advisory committee
"During the first session of the Forum last year detailed representations were made to Overseas Pakistanis Minister Farooq Sattar and subsequently, I presented those issues in the meeting of the OPF and proposed the idea that Pakistanis living abroad can be given more effective role,” he added.
Some of the issues which were proposed and to be further discussed in the Forum include: the growing need for improved educational facilities catering to the needs of the community, establishing a college and skill development centre in the UAE. “We have also recommended to establish an OPF Facilitation Center in the UAE in which information and advice and facilities can be directly given to the community by the OPF,” Malik added.
He said the second session of the Overseas Pakistanis Forum in Dubai would hopefully pave the way for the implementation of the proposals which were raised earlier.
