AMBASSADOR SHERZAI ENJOYING FAREWELL BIDS IN RIYADH
BY: FAIZ AL-NAJDI

Pakistani Ambassador to Saudi Arabia - His Excellency Omar Khan Alisherzai - relinquished the charge of his office to his deputy Mohammad Ayaz Khan – Deputy Head of the Mission – at the Embassy of Pakistan on Monday the 31^st January-2011.
It was on 1^st November 2009 that Ambassador Omar Khan Alisherzai presented his credentials to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques – HRH King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud.
Prior to his appointment as the Ambassador designate to Saudi Arabia, the incoming Ambassador His Excellency Ishtiaq Hussain Andrabi was working as an additional foreign secretary in Islamabad. Ambassador Andrabi has earlier served in various capacities in Egypt, Manchester, Beirut, New York, Brazil, Sri Lanka and Argentina.It is expected that the rich diplomatic experiences carried forward by the new incoming ambassador Andrabi would see a further improvement in the bilateral relations between the two countries, including a marked increase in bilateral trades and recruitment of man powers from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia. The New Ambassador designate Ishtiaq Hussain Andrabi is expected to present his credentials to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques sometimes in the month of February 2011.
The outgoing ambassador Umar Khan Ali Sherzai is still around here in Riyadh and nowadays enjoying the hospitality of the Pakistani community in Riyadh who are bee-lining to offer him farewell bids.
So far he is known to have received at least four grand farewell receptions in Riyadh – one by Prof. Mrs. Maimoona (Vice Principal of Pakistan International School-Riyadh), by Dr. Mansour Memon (a noted social worker in Riyadh), from Shamshad Siddiqui (Chief Coordinator Middle East for Muhibbaan-e-Pakistan and member Board of Governors for Overseas Pakistanis Foundation – OPF) and lately yet another by Pakistan Investor Forum – an organization of the Pakistanis who are self-employed here.
So far, I had the opportunity of attending at least one of them and would like to share the proceedings of the same with the readers. This reception in question was thrown by Shamshad Siddiqui and family at his gorgeous villa in the upscale area of Ishbellia-Riyadh
This was a select gathering of the notables from Riyadh who had proudly gathered along with their wives. Some officials from the embassy of Pakistan also attended. This gathering also included Syed Noor Hasan Shah Kazmi – an old acquaintance of the Ambassador from his days as the Head of Chancery in Qatar. Noor Shah is a proud author of 20 books in Urdu accomplished by him over a period of some 20 years or so; starting with the first one in 1991 which was also inaugurated by Ambassador Sherzai in Qatar.
The program commenced with the launching of the latest book by Noor Shah entitled, “Tera Shahar Chor Diya” – translated in English as, “I bid good-bye to your town”. Ambassador Sherzai was delightfully graced the occasion and proudly mentioned that he had the honor of launching the very first book authored by Noor Shah in 1991, and incidentally he also had the honor of launching the latest book of the same author. At this moment he also recalled some of his memories from the bygone days in Qatar. He mentioned that he has a large followings of his admirers in Qatar and whenever he visits the place he does so very quietly for the reason that a huge number of Pakistanis gather to receive him at the airport that creates unnecessary inconvenience to the local security apparatus.
At this the program broke for dinner. The items served for dinner were top of the line Desi culinary cuisines.
After the dinner, Shamshad Siddiqui took the floor and spoke few words in praise of the outgoing ambassador and then invited few other speakers, mostly from out of those who either knew the ambassador closely or had a chance to work with him in the past.
The first to speak was Dr. Kazim Niaz – Community Welfare Attaché at the embassy of Pakistan in Riyadh. Dr. Kazim recalled from days and nights when he had to work on issues related to the problems faced to the Pakistani community here. He said he always received the best of cooperation and guidance from his Excellency the ambassador. He added that he found ambassador Sherzai always ready to listen to his subordinates and acted as a good captain.
Dr. Mansour Memon was all praise for him and said that he found the ambassador to be a nice and a humane person who was ever ready to go to any length to serve the community. He wished him all the best in his life ahead.
Moahmmad Asghar Qureshi (a businessman, member of board of governors of OPF and Chief Coordinator PPP-Saudi Arabia) speaking on the occasion admitted that despite many difficulties and limited resources the ambassador was able to do a lot of good things – both for Pakistan and the community. He said he considered him to be a very good captain of his team at the embassy.
Prof. Javed Iqbal (bureau chief in Riyadh for Urdu News) expressed his admiration for the ambassador. He said he found him to be a hard working person who was able to do so many good things for the community. He also added that he was fortunate in having the opportunity to have spent some quality time with him and was able to preserve so many beautiful moments with him in his camera. He wished the new ambassador is equally caring and hard working and expected to preserve some good moments with him also in his camera.
Prof. Mrs Maimoona (Vice Principal of Pakistan International School in Riyadh) speaking on the occasion said that he found the ambassador, for that matter his wife also, to be a compassionate person who was always forthcoming in going extra miles in solving the problems of the community. She said it was hard to part but the ambassadors have to leave after completing the tenure. She requested all to pray and wish the ambassador best of wishes and good luck in his life ahead.
His Excellency the outgoing ambassador – Umar Khan Ali Sherzai - in his speech first of all thanked Shamshad Siddiqui and his family for arranging such a grand farewell reception in his honor. He then added that he was proud of the fact that he spent his term, as ambassador, in honest hard work to serve and protect the interests of Pakistan in Saudi Arabia. He said he also felt deeply honored for the fact that he was able to do many good things for the Pakistani community in Saudi Arabia. On a very frank note he informed that the Pakistan’s relations with Saudi Arabia were special. He added that the relations between the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia could vary and see ups and down, however the relation of Saudi Arabia with the people of Pakistan always remained excellent. According to him, it was the corner stone of the policy of Saudi Arabia to always come out to help the Pakistani people whenever they needed. He cited from the examples of the earthquake of 2005 and the floods of 2010, when the people and the government of Saudi Arabia came out in a very unprecedented manner to extend all sorts of help and assistance.  His Excellency the outgoing ambassador Sherzai seemed in a very good mood and informally, during private discussions, he dwelt upon many an issues concerning Pakistan and expressed his candid & frank opinion on them. The context and the content of those opinions obviously remain beyond the scope of this report.
At the end of the program Shamshad Siddiqui requested Saeed Mughal (a free-lance journalist and editor Urdu of ContactPakistan newsletter) to offer some prayers for the well being of Pakistan and Pakistanis and also for peace and prosperity for the outgoing ambassador.
The program ended on a very good note with lots of photo sessions of the attendees with the outgoing ambassador.