MANAMA: Mahmood Rafique, Editor: The last-minute announcement by the embassy of the Islamic of Pakistan in Manama that there will be no public meeting during the historic and milestone visit by Prime Minister Imran Khan to brotherly Kingdom of Bahrain, has disheartened thousands of Pakistanis living in Bahrain.
The public meeting circus started with the embassy’s invitation to the community to submit a copy of local ID with a mobile telephone number as an expression of interest to attend the public meeting which never happened. Thousands queue outside the Pakistan embassy to get registered once they registered, they were told that they would be informed through the SMS about the invite to attend the public meeting of the Prime Minister during his stay in Bahrain.
This was a public notice, and the embassy also informed many leading Pakistanis personally that they should attend the public meeting with their families?
The first public announcement was almost four weeks back and those who submitted their requests have had a hope that they would be among the lucky ones, but was of great shock and surprise when the embassy circulated a message through unauthorized social media channels, I am talking about official announcement being circulated by Tom, Dick and Harry, saying that there would be no public meeting during the Prime Minister Imran’s visit, and at the bottom of those social media messages there was a line that ‘if someone wishes to confirm’ must call the embassy?
This speaks volumes of incompetence, lack of leadership qualities and lackluster attitude about a visit of the Prime Minister of Pakistan to Bahrain and exposes the basic fact that why we are losing respect among overseas Pakistanis who remit billions of dollars a year, and this treatment?
There are many lessons learnt from this visit, first there should have been some sort of community meeting by the PM even for few minutes, secondly, the Minister of Overseas Pakistanis should and must have met with the community in the oldest expatriate institution “Pakistan Club” to interact with the overseas Pakistanis.
Last but not the least, very important lesson for the PTI as a political party, to me, they lost the most for not having community meeting in Bahrain as the PTI is working to further consolidate and expand its base in Pakistan as well as abroad. How you can win the hearts and minds of the overseas Pakistanis by treating them as a non-entity? a big gamble that can definitely impact adversely in the next general elections. Prime Minister Imran Khan should personally take a note of it how this has happened and expose involve in this conspiracy.
“We are totally disgusted the way we have been treated and kept at a bay by the embassy, how we can galvanize support at the grass-root level for the upcoming PTI group in Bahrain,” a very dedicated worker of the PTI while seeking anonymity, said.
On a positive note, expatriate community in Bahrain is overwhelmed with a very good and important visit by the Prime Minister Imran Khan to the Kingdom of Bahrain which will bolster the level existing ties between the two sides.
Until then keep the fingers across and wait what action will be taken by the PTI at a party level to fix the responsibility for messing up with a possibly good community meeting in Bahrain.
The PTI Government should keep the pace of momentum intact gained on diplomatic front least by appointing staff with a clarity, objectivity, robustness, commitment and passion to deliver, and not the ornamental plants!
