LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz, through Himmat Card programme, is focussing on the marginalised communities including women which is a very big step. The British public raised 41.5 million pounds for the flood affected Pakistanis whereas the UK Government added 39 million pounds as cash transfers to cope with this catastrophe; a safe and secure Pakistan is in UK’s interest, given our close friendship and mutual interests and the stable economy of Pakistan is very important for both the countries and good for trade relations. I love Pakistani cuisine, the spicy ‘Qeema Naan’ and the sweet ‘Gulab Jaamans’.
These views were expressed by head of UK High Commission’s Punjab office, Ms Clara Strandhoj, during an exclusive interview with The News and Jang
Hinting at multi-sector improvement in UK-Pakistan ties in reply to the question as how to strengthen mutual trade, Ms Clara stated that UK was Pakistan’s third largest trade partner and the largest in Europe. “UK is the third largest source of Pakistan’s direct foreign investment. The value of the trade between the two countries is 4.1 billion pounds a year, which is significant”. At this juncture, the British diplomat referred to the five biggest companies of UK and commented : “They make one per cent of the Pakistan’s GDP and that’s pretty enormous. There are two hundred British companies operational in Pakistan. We are making it easier for the British companies to invest in Pakistan. Britain already has a one stop shop for investors which will basically simplify the process a little bit and 50 million pounds’ investment is in the pipeline through the one stop shop project. We are also encouraging the Pakistani government to make it easier for the investors especially with the British Pakistani diaspora. Anything which the Pakistani government will do to make it easier, is win-win. I visited Sialkot a couple of weeks ago where I visited Bromley Sports and MB Sports. These are incredible companies exporting to the UK. MB sports is importing English Willow to make cricket bats. They import the English Willow, make the bats here and supply that globally, including into the UK. It was amazing to see that. There is a lot of UK’s interest to invest in Pakistan and we are working to encourage that”.
Dwelling further on mutual ties, Ms Clara added, “We have such close cultural and historical ties. Pakistani diaspora in UK constitutes 1.6 million people. It is our biggest diaspora and I think a lot of Pakistani people even know that. And we also have one hundred thousand British Pakistanis living here in Pakistan. We have also shared mutual interests. Educated Pakistanis, in particular, are good for us. Our global ties are so strong and building a resilient future together is actually sensitive. Pakistan has got a lot of potential but it’s really important that Pakistan makes sensible decisions now on economy; to put Pakistan back on the track in particular, they need to make tough decisions in terms of stable and growing economy”.
Answering additional questions, the British diplomat said, “Pakistan has demographic challenge in terms of population. Pakistan doesn’t have resources like jobs and health facilities for that. UK and Pakistan have ongoing cooperation in education, women and girls, demography, investment, climate change, security, cooperation on street crimes and other areas. We have a Pakistani heritage politician, former governor Muhammed Sarwar who was a politician in the UK”.
Ms Clara was appreciative of being in Punjab, especially its capital, Lahore. “I am lucky one that I’m the only British diplomat in Lahore. I should agree with that ‘The man who has not seen Lahore, is not born’. Lahorites are very ‘Mehman Nawaz’. I can talk down any other city of this country but I definitely feel that there is something special in Lahore and I feel very priviliged to be experienced here. When the British High Commissioner Jane came to Lahore for the first time, we went to the inner city where we had never been before. I love the Pakistani cuisine, love the spicy food , had ‘Qeema Naan’ which was so delicious. I love the Pakistani deserts. ‘Gulab Jamans’ are my favourite and enormous in taste.
On Climate Change, Ms Clara informed The News and Jang that Climate Change was UK’s top priority in Pakistan. “Pakistan is most vulnerable in relation to climate change in the world. When I landed in Pakistan on my assignment in 2022, there was a humanitarian catastrophe as one -third of the country was in water. In terms of that crisis, the UK stepped up, we supported cash transfers to 3 thousand people and gave 39 million pounds. The British people also stepped up; it speaks to the relationship between the two countries. The British public raised 41.5 million pounds for the flood affected people. We can’t be just reacting. We are doing much for potentially flood affected communities in Punjab. We are also doing a lot of work on water governance. We have a programme about water resource accountability in Pakistan and we are helping the Punjab government in water management and making sure that water should be going where it needs to be in terms of people but also for agricultural purposes. We are also helping the Punjab government in implementing the Water Act. UK Foreign Secretary has, last week , stated that the Climate change is the top priority for our country and Pakistan is the priority country in relation to climate change. I think that Climate Change has become the bigger part of conversation in Pakistan. after floods of 2022. It has become the part of national conversation. The Pakistani government is also taking more and more action and we are working closely. We are also trying to improve awareness regarding climate change in Pakistan. We held a debate a couple of weeks ago in our “Chevening Programme” at LUMS. The debate was on climate change but was specifically on smog and urbanization. We are also trying to increase the preference of climate change in the public discourse”.
The diplomat was asked about the UK’s contribution vis-à-vis gender equality and programmes on women empowerment and future education projects?
She replied, “ Everything we do has a gender lens. We have specific programme which is really about social inclusion. Awareness campaigns about child marriages, gender violence have reached to 34 million people. People are understanding their rights and are aware. We trained about 34 thousand community leaders to help resolve the issues locally. They will also help people with disabilities, transgenders and religious minorities. We do quite a lot of work to try to improve social cohesion. I visited Faisalabad and Sargodha. It was really exciting to see in person that how sometimes just conversations are bringing communities together and how can they improve the impact on real life and help in social cohesion. As for women empowerment , it is an enormous challenge, but the programme we do in partnerships with the government are moving to dial and trying to shift social norms and also empower women, simultaneously trying to create opportunities for them. We have various partners on this programme including British Council, Unicef and UNFPA as well. UK and Punjab have very strong connections on education. UK is the major player in the education space. We spent about 900 million pounds on education in Pakistan in one decade. Education is one of our largest programmes, globally. What that programme has done, we have 4.5 million kids in school out of which, 3 million are girls. Most of the money of this project is spent in Punjab. We have a Punjab education sector programme. A lot of people of the programme are associated with the UK. Apart from 4.5 million kids in school, in the duration of this programme, there has been substantial increase in the qualified teachers as well as 50 percent increase in the enrolment which is ground-breaking”.
About ‘Himmat Card program’, the UK diplomat opined “I think the disability is incredibly important and we support that 34 thousand people with disabilities to get their registration and disability cards. I think anything that increases help and support to person with disabilities is a good thing. Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz, through Himmat card programme, is focussing on the marginalised communities including women and it is a very big step.
On the Street Crimes issue, Ms Clara informed these scribes that Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) was working very closely with Pakistani police. “We have a flagship agreement which is unprecedented, globally, for UK. We have a very strong anti-narcotics offer. We help to get drugs off to the streets of Pakistan which help to get drugs off to the streets of UK, and drugs which are destined to the UK. We have met a lot of success in intercepting those drugs. We have very close working relationship with police. We work on airport security, as well”.