Houston-Karachi declared sister cities



Mustafa Kamal hopes that the binding of the two cities in this relationship will give the world a chance to see Karachi and the people of Pakistan in a different light. –APP Photo

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%2...ster-cities--zj


KARACHI: Nazim Karachi Syed Mustafa Kamal and Mayor of Houston Bill White signed an agreement declaring Karachi and Houston sister cities.

The agreement signing ceremony was held at the City Council Hall of Houston, making Karachi the 17th world city to be entered into sister cities relationship with Houston.

Speaking on the occasion Mustafa Kamal said Karachi is the face of Pakistan and the biggest city of the Muslim world.

‘Today we, as well as the entire Muslim Ummah, are victims of our own bad perception. Our marketing world over by the Muslim community as well as from Pakistan has been very poor’.

‘After having established a relationship with Houston the world will get a chance to evaluate us as Pakistani’s and as Muslims’, he said adding that for him it is not just a binding relation between two cities but he looks at it beyond that. There is a deep rooted vision behind it.

‘It is very important for us to we become the front line city of Muslims of this part of the world to show who we are and what we do.’

Mustafa Kamal pointed out that although this is not the prime job of any district government to market Karachi and Pakistan, as the Government of Pakistan has foreign offices all over the world but instead of waiting we have come to this part of the world for showing Karachi as well as showing the good deeds of the Pakistani and Karachi administration.

He thanked the Mayor of Houston City Bill White, his whole team, the people of Houston and especially cited the name of M.J Khan, the President of Houston Karachi Sister Cities Association for being a very vital player in the whole process.




‘On behalf of 18 million people of Karachi, the people and all districts of Pakistan , I thank you all for giving me this opportunity’,

Mustafa Kamal said and described the occasion indeed as a great historical moment which would not have been possible if the mayor of Houston and all his team had not taken initiatives in this regard.

Earlier, Mayor Bill White of Houston termed the Houston Karachi sister cities agreement as an important occasion for both cities and citizens of the two cities and said that he had been in Karachi as a senior government official and he had seen many parts of the city.

Both have skilled and hard working people and both are port cities. He expressed hope that this relationship would prove successful. Karachi is the 100th Muslim City in the overall Sister City Relationship between the Muslim World and USA.




The program was attended by Consul General of Pakistan Aaqil Nadeem, Chairman of Sister Cities Board Mike Hier, Chairman of Houston City Council of International Relations M.J Khan, members of Houston City Council and a large number of prominent citizens.

Both Mustafa Kamal and Bill White exchanged souvenirs after signing the agreement.

Nazim Karachi also presented the traditional Ajrak and Sindhi Cap to Mayor Bill White.




For more updates and pics

http://www.karachicity.gov.pk/

Let me be the first to congratulate Karachi on this occasion.

Thanks ..lets shake hands and respect each other as equal patriotic Pakistani citizens !

I have no personal animosity against you whatsoever brother. I mean that. I will always, however, speak out against what I believe to be wrong or immoral.

Now Mustafa Kemal mentions the Ummah, and Pakistan, then he is fine by me. Divisions along ethnic, linguistic and racial lines is unnacceptable to me.The killing of innocent people is abhorent to me too. If we can accept that we are all Pakistanis and Muslims, that Pakistan belongs to all of us and we must share it like brothers then I have no problems.

After adding the line "EQUAL Pakistani citizens" (regardless of our political view point)

yes I agree on that ..

Let me the first to forward the hand on this point of agreement !

salamualikum

one great development .. May Allah prosper Pakistan.. stable Karachi Stable Pakistan InshAllah ..

Congratulations and really happy on this ..

ALLAH HAFIZ

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Praise be the lord and pass around some "Ladoos".

As they say, at the end of the day, we are all in the same team.!!!!!!!!

yeah Mustafa kemal came here couple of weeks back. MJ Khan is City council member. Here is video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wvz7staCNI

good stuff for nation, i have said this ample amount of times we need more people like Mustafa Kamal without political affiliations

Thank you MQM !!

I hope all other Pakistani citites learn from Karachi and make themselves as good as Karachi if not better.

What are the advantages associated with becoming sister cities? I've never known what it means...

Congratulations to everyone, anyway!

Check it out guys :- http://www.houstontx.gov/abouthouston/sistercities.html

Being a sister city increases people to people contacts as far as culture, foods, businesses, language and education is concerned. The biggest advantage will be trade. City to city trade will most definitely increase. Istanbul's trade with Houston is about $1.6bil. Well Turkey is a very developed country as compared to Pakistan so lets take Azerbaijan as a good example. Azerbaijan's trade is about $300 million with houston alone so just imagine what Pakistan's trade would be. We can easily say $800mil - $1bil. I live in Houston and let me tell you that there are a lot of Pakistanis that live here as compared to turkish or azeri people.

Congrats Ababeel. Did you went to Shahnai on 28th Feb to see Mustafa Kamal.

No I was not able to attend. Did you go?

Nope

Another acheivement by the MQM and Karachi's star mayor. Inshallah this will continue.

Congrats to all. I have not visited the city of Karachi since 2000. I know it has change a lot. Hopefully one day I will go there.

Just Curious, does Houston also have 20 Hours Electricity breakdowns a day ?

Isnt that even a greater achievement if they did it with a 20 hour electricty breakdown a day.

Now, Imagine if we had no breakdown then what would Karachi be?

I put the same question to my cousins residing at Karachi and this is what they had to say:

"When the electricty goes, generators automatically kick in. So the impact is big for newsreaders and minimal to us".