Tazeen Akhtar
Mauritius , a small island country in the south of Indian Ocean adjacent to Madagascar and Eastern coast of Africa is example for many states in the World that are among the biggest few, have all natural, mineral, human resources but still not standing on their feet even after the decades of their independence.
Mauritius celebrates 56th Independence Day and 32 Anniversary of the Republic. The country secured its independence from the Britain on 12th March 1968 and became a Republic in 1992. Earlier, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the French came to these islands but left finding no opportunity of making profits from here. But the people of Mauritius took the challenge by themselves and proved their capabilities of establishment a state that is a model for the developing World.
Mr. & Mrs. Rashid Ali Soobadar, High Commissioner of Republic of Mauritius and staff hosted a reception in this connection in Islamabad Serena Hotels on 22 April 2024 that was unique in the National Days ceremonies in the capital city in terms of its format.
Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, MNA and former federal minister was the chief guest. Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Defense, Mr. Shehar Yaar Akbar Khan, Additional Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Head of Africa Desk), H.E Atadjan Molamov, Dean of Diplomatic Corp, Ambassador Turkmenistan, Dean of African Diplomatic Corp, Ambassador of Morocco graced the stage as special guests.
H.C Mr. Soobadar is basically a literary person from education back ground , he always try to educate the others about the current dynamics in the region and in the world as a whole. The reception was more a learning event than just having networking with no sharing of information and knowledge to one another. A notable segment was appreciating the contributions of the staff, consuls, Serena hotels and other friends of the High Commission.
The efforts of the spouses of the envoys mostly are not noticed by the guests and the reporters that is extremely injustice to them. The spouse of the H.C and other wives of the staff of the H.C played their own role in holding this beautiful reception.
H.C mentioned the contribution of his spouse in a way that made all the guests smile. He said, ” I pay my gratitude to who is the minister of finance, interior and everything at my home. She is my wife.” The guests commented that wife is not only the minister but prime minister of the home government.
High Commissioner expressed his gratitude to Mr. Aziz Boolani, the CEO of Serena Hotels for his gracious cooperation in holding the event in wonderful manner. H.C appreciated the support of Honorary Consuls of Lahore and Karachi, Mr. Sethi and Mr. Sohail for the working of the High Commission in Pakistan.
The host H.C shared the history of Mauritius covering the arrival of Arabs, Portuguese, Dutch etc and lastly the British to the islands of an area of 720 square kilometers only. All failed to settle because there was nothing than sugarcane only. In 1968, after the Britain left the islands, the native people took the challenge and turned the islands into a real state with a sustainable system and governance.
Mr. Soobadar said, ” We attached great importance to the education for the survival of our state. Education is free. We spend 5 to 6 % of our GDP on education. 95 % of our population are the owners of their own houses. The transport is free for the pensioners. We converted the islands left by the most developed nations as fruitless into a welfare state.”
H.E noted to the astonishment of many guests , ” Mauritius does not have a Military, no army, no navy even. We do not spend on defense. We have no neighbors. Ocean is the only neighbor and yes the Ocean sometimes is furious. “
” It has been 56 years of our independence. We have to see what we have done in this long years’ period. I can state that we made our nation a mature nation to tackle the obstacles in their well being. We had no liberty of wrong doings. We focused on the constructive things only, H.C continued.
H.C Soobadar thanked Pakistan for its consistent support to his country. He noted pleasant working relationship between the two countries through thick and thin.
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He further said, Mauritius is the real secular state. It is multi racial multi lingual society and still it is beautiful society.We know how to build bridges between different people.Mauritius stands at number 18 in 200 countries of the world in Ease of doing Business, 60th in human development, 55th in corruption, 23rd in peace 63rd out of 180 in press freedom. It shows that we are moving forward in right direction.”
H.E said that we love Urdu, We love Urdu poetry. Mushaairas are held in our country. We love Qawwali. He attracted the attention of the guest by speaking a sentence of Urdu. He said that Urdu is learnt in our country by many students.
Chief Guest , Dr Tariq Fazal congratulated the people and government of Mauritius on their national day. He said that our history, culture, geography are common. He suggested exchanges of delegations to enhance people to people and business relations. He noted the increase in trade in last few years. He mentioned the participation of 5 delegations in the TDAP events in 2022. Mauritius was represented in maritime conference in Nov 23. He welcomed students of Mauritius for education in Pakistan on scholarships.
The most interest part of it was the High Commissioner took notice from the stage of some guest talking to each other while the host was addressing from the podium. H.E Soobadar very rightly asked them to keep silence and if they want to talk , better go out of the hall. Here it is worth mentioning that, most of the people present in the receptions don’t listen to the the speakers and disturb the event with their noisy chit chat to one another.
The event went wonderful in a sense that there was extra ordinary security around the Serena hotels for the stay of President of Iran there the same day but still a large number of leading personalities from different walks of life attended the reception. They included diplomatic corp, gov officials, politicians, business community and media persons.
Finally, listening to the speech of the high commissioner, I was again and again relating the points to Pakistan and was comparing our state of affairs with Mauritius as how a small, resource less, defenseless, nuclear less nation is walking among the comity of the nations with their head high and with their hearts satisfied and where we are standing despite having everything. That is a lesson for us to learn and correct ourselves if we want to survive respectfully.
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