Malaysia seeks stronger ties, greater exchanges with Pakistan
KARACHI: The High Commissioner of Malaysia to Pakistan, Dato’ Mohammad Azhar Mazlan, has said that there is a great deal of commonality and potential for bilateral exchanges between Malaysia and Pakistan.
“What we need to do is unlock that potential to turn it into a fruitful engagement that takes our relationship to new heights,” he said while speaking at a programme organised by the English Speaking Union of Pakistan (ESUP) at a local hotel here on Saturday.
“Malaysia takes pride in its association with Pakistan since 31 August 1957, when we gained independence. Pakistan was one of the earliest countries to recognise Malaysia as a nation. Justice Abdul Hamid of Pakistan also helped Malaysia in drafting its constitution. It goes to show how close a brotherly and sisterly relationship Malaysia and Pakistan enjoy,” he said.
“We have almost one hundred thousand Pakistanis diaspora living in Malaysia, who are working there and remitting money back to Pakistan, which also helps us develop our economy. It is by far the largest diaspora in Asia, living side by side with other communities in Malaysia, while also enjoying a good income,” he said.
“Malaysians and Pakistanis share many commonalities that bind us together. I have been in Pakistan since January 2023 and enjoyed every moment of being here. I can feel the genuine warmth of the people. We need to portray this warmth to the world. For instance, there is the tourism industry here, for which you cannot depend solely on domestic tourists.
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This year, Malaysia has already recorded the arrival of 25 million tourists. Tourism is one of the largest sectors of our economy in terms of revenue and employment. We can share our knowledge of how to expand tourism with Pakistan,” the high commissioner pointed out.
He said that next month Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be visiting Malaysia on the invitation of his counterpart, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
“His visit will open a new chapter in our relationship with Pakistan. Anwar Ibrahim also visited Pakistan last year in October. He had also visited Karachi during his youth, when he fell in love with Allama Iqbal’s poetry,” he said.
Currently, there are more than 5,000 Pakistani students in Malaysia. Before Covid-19, the number stood between 15,000 and 20,000.
He also said that Malaysia and Pakistan have elevated their relationship to a strategic partnership.
“We are not just friends. We are partners in terms of development. Pakistan is the third largest trading partner of Malaysia in South Asia, registering about 1.8 billion dollars in trade volume last year. Of course, we are not content with that figure as we want the relationship to go further. The number one trade partner with Malaysia right now is India, and after that comes Bangladesh,” he said.
“Malaysia is right in the middle of the ASEAN region, with 10 member states. The population base of ASEAN is 670 million people, so I would like to invite more Pakistani business entities to come and look at Malaysia as your investment destination.
“We are also investing in Pakistan. We are in the finance sector, with one of our banks, Maybank, operating here. Our petroleum company was also here earlier, and we are asking it to look at Pakistan again in terms of energy sector investment. Our national power generation company is also operating one of the power plants in Lahore.
We have our telecommunications company investing here with 2,000 cellphone towers. Last year, we managed to bring our airline AirAsia here,” he said, adding that Batik Air Malaysia also operates in Pakistan.
“So connectivity is not a problem. It is not an issue to fly to Malaysia. There are also PIA flights to Malaysia. Our ties are getting stronger. We need to leverage our many commonalities,” he concluded.
Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2025
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