Chairman Senate Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari attended the lunch hosted by the Secretary General Commonwealth Mr Kamalesh Sharma to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen’s coronation.
The Queen was joined by Heads of States and representatives belonging to 54 Commonwealth member countries. The Chairman Senate represented the Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani.
The Queen was presented a souvenir by the representatives of the Commonwealth community and a group photo was also taken on the occasion.
During the event, Chairman Senate conveyed to the Queen felicitations from the Government and People of Pakistan on the auspicious occasion of the Diamond Jubilee.
Later, the Chairman Senate participated in the Diamond Jubilee Commonwealth Economic Forum at Mansion Hall, London. In his speech on “Shaping Capitalism for Global Prosperity and Sustainable Growth” he highlighted the need for the developed and developing countries to promote sustainable and more equitable economic system. He underlined that Pakistan was keen to build on the fraternal ties with other Commonwealth partners especially in the economic sector. In this regard, Pakistan provided a very attractive market in the present global economic turmoil with a 56 million strong workforce.
The Chairman Senate said that instability in the region had directly affected Pakistan which had lost thousands of precious lives of civilian and military personnel in the ongoing war against forces of terror and extremism. Pakistan also had to pay a heavy economic cost. He said that the devastating floods in 2010 and 2011 had further compounded difficulties. The Chairman noted that despite these challenges, Pakistan’s economy had shown extraordinary resilience; GDP growth rate in the last two years averaged around 3.4% compared to less than 2% in the previous two years.
