Ambassador seeks end to 'segregation'

Pakistan is not doing enough to provide guidance, support and a social network for the 850,000 of its people living in the Emirates, says the country's new ambassador to the UAE.

Khurshid Ahmed Junejo, the new Pakistani ambassador to the UAE, says there is segregation in the community, but that it can be solved.

ABU DHABI // Pakistan is not doing enough to provide guidance, support and a social network for the 850,000 of its people living in the Emirates, the country's new ambassador to the UAE said. Khurshid Ahmed Junejo, who took up his new post this month, said his countrymen here were divided by class, caste, wealth and profession and needed a new sense of unity. Language differences, with Pashto, Urdu and Punjabi dialects all spoken, also created divisions.

"There is segregation among Pakistanis here but we can solve these issues. We have to bring them together," he said. "In the UAE, if you live together, you will strengthen yourself." Mr Junejo said community centres, which were closed in 1996, would provide the "single roof" under which a sense of unity could be revived. Also on Mr Junejo's agenda are boosting investment ties between the UAE and Pakistan, improving the standard of education in community schools and raising living conditions for the thousands of Pakistani labourers here.

This is the ambassador's first time in Abu Dhabi, and he has several meetings set up to prepare him for his position. With finance officials, Mr Junejo hopes to push for more investment by the UAE in Pakistan's coal and electricity industry. He also hopes for better opportunities for Pakistani expatriates to invest in the UAE. Regarding Pakistani community schools, Mr Junejo acknowledged that there were problems with admissions and staffing.

Mr Junejo's career spans more than two decades. He remains linked with President Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party. He had worked as head of Benazir Bhutto's constituency and remains mayor of Larkana, a city in the Sindh province of Pakistan and the birthplace of the slain former prime minister. The embassy has been promising the return of community centres for some time now and officials, including the ambassador, are hopeful that they will reopen this year. UAE authorities closed the centres in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai. Some expatriates say that disputes - too many leaders vying for power and illegal elections being conducted at the centres - angered authorities.

Abu Dhabi's centre in particular is expected to reopen soon after board members approve the plans. It will be in its previous location, on Muroor Road next to the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Arab Pakistani School. Community leaders would run the centres independently. "Once they are in place, we will chalk out programmes and they will run themselves," said Riaz Hussain Bukhari, deputy head of mission at the embassy.

Seminars, cultural and social activities, training and forums for men, women and children are some of the centres' intended uses. Sheikh Zayed once called the Pakistani community the "heart" of the UAE, with its uncomplaining stance and affiliation with Islam. Pakistanis welcomed the latest promise. Dr Rumana Nabeel, who used to work in Karachi, said: "It's very difficult to make new friends here. We don't have any centres. There is no support network."

"It's a great thing that the community centres will reopen," said Ghazala Iqbal, 39, a homemaker. Her family moved to Abu Dhabi three years ago when her husband took a job in engineering. "People will get a chance to meet each other and make new friends. I would like to see some craft fairs going on there." Other communities have excelled in maintaining a sense of unity in the UAE, where Pakistan has failed, said Saghier Jafri, 70, a retired engineer in Fujairah. "I find Indian and Bangladeshi centres are flourishing in the UAE," he said. "They have got more patience than Pakistanis. I think we are a little hot-tempered and we don't want to listen to other people's arguments."

There are attempts to pull the community together. Imran Jamil, who works in Abu Dhabi, is general secretary of the Young Pakistani Expatriates Society, which tries to unite young Pakistanis to improve their job prospects in the UAE. "When you are alone you can't do anything, your scope and your surrounding are limited," he said. "If you have a community or a gathering, you then have lots of links and you broaden your horizon. If we gather, we can also brighten the name of our country in the UAE."

The president of Pakistan Association Dubai, Mohammed Riaz Farooq, said he helped organise musical events, Eid al Fitr parties, charity evenings and Independence Day celebrations. "Pakistanis here all belong to different parts of the country," he said. They are of a different culture and are a different mix. We are very active in the cultural programmes and all kinds of people are coming to our events."