Well-deserved Pak honour for Mansour

The conferring of the Hilal-i-Pakistan or Crescent of Pakistan by President Arif Alvi is a well-deserved honour for Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.

It is well known that Sheikh Mansour has taken stupendous efforts in supporting Pakistan in the humanitarian and development fields and promoting bilateral relations of friendship and joint action between the two countries.

Abdullah Khalifah Al Ghafli, Director of the UAE Pakistan Assistance Programme, UAE PAP, too has played a major role in managing and implementing humanitarian and development projects in Pakistan.

Hence, it is apt that he has been conferred with Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam, or Star of the Great Leader, honour by Pakistan. The Hilal-i-Pakistan is the second highest honour awarded to non-heads of state.

The UAE and Pakistan enjoy historically robust relations at all political, economic and social levels.

The UAE PAP focused on development projects such as building schools, universities, roads, bridges, water projects and improvements in the health sector in various areas of Pakistan.

Today, nearly 1.6 million Pakistanis live in the UAE and Pakistani diaspora has contributed to a lasting relationship between the two powerful nations.

The recent visits of Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan to the UAE and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s visit to Pakistan during the last 10 months reflect the special relations between the leadership and people of both the countries.

The Emirates Red Crescent (ERC) has launched several health projects in Pakistan, as part of its development initiatives for the “Year of Tolerance.”

The projects include the restoration of the Kidney Treatment Centre in Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar, which received ten kidney dialysis machines and other medical equipment, and the Institute of Kidney Diseases Hayatabad Peshawar, which received six dialysis machines.

Over 407 million drops of polio vaccine have been delivered to more than 71 million Pakistani children as part of the Emirates Polio Campaign implemented in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan since 2014 till the end of April 2019.

The rapport is strengthening on varied fronts. For example, Pakistan is fast emerging as one of the top source markets for Dubai’s tourism industry, bringing in more than 205,000 visitors in the first five months of the year 2019.

To further strengthen travel demand to the emirate from Pakistan, Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) recently launched the ‘Chalo Dubai’ campaign (“Let’s Go to Dubai”).

The Dubai Tourism has partnered with House of ARY, one of the leading South Asian broadcast networks, to provide Pakistani visitors with specially curated, Dubai-centric holiday packages that showcase the city’s world-class destination propositions.

The packages can be accessed as part of the ‘Wow Dubai Deals’ on ARY’s specially designed online travel portal, the Sahulat Bazar.

These packages include exciting city tours to a variety of attractions, as well as special interactions with renowned television and film personalities who share close working relationships with the network, including Humayun Saeed, Fahad Mustafa, Nida Yasir and Faisal Qureshi as they join visitors on their trips to discover enriching reasons to revisit the emirate.

The UAE’s wise leadership attaches great importance to promote the historic ties between the two countries.

As Hamad Obaid Ibrahim Salem Al Zaabi, UAE Ambassador to Pakistan, earlier pointed out, the bilateral relations are unique and are based on joint fraternal, cultural and social bonds.