Argentine ambassador and dean of the diplomatic corps Rodolfo Martin Saravia held a dinner to welcome eight new high commissioners and ambassadors to Pakistan.

Last Tuesday, President Mamnoon Hussain received the credentials of the new envoys in a ceremony with all the required pomp and pageantry.

‘It is common that an envoy’s term of service in a country is three years, although it varies much. Last summer, many envoys left and now most of the new ones have arrived and are settling in,” Ambassador Saravia said. Mr Saravia has represented Argentina in Pakistan for over a decade. The new envoys are Julius Kibet Bitok from Kenya, Lakhal Benkelailand from Algeria, Furkat Sidikov from Uzbekistan, Jean-Francois Cautain from the European Union, Tore Nedrebø from Norway, Daniel Ramos Espiritu from the Philippines, Stefano Pontecorvo from Italy and Mohammad Ebrahim Abdulqader from Bahrain.

Algerian ambassador Benkelailand and Mrs Benkelai Fatiha hosted the Algerian national day a few days ago, but the other envoys have had more time to become familiar with Pakistan before hosting larger public events. Instead they have attended celebrations for other countries’ national days, such as Turkey’s last week, followed by the Czech Republic’s national day and Hungary’s national day.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2015

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