Sada-e-Watan Sydney ™
sadaewatan@gmail.com
Syed Zafar Hussain & Dr. Ashraf Choudhary
A Message of Dr Ashraf Choudhary MP New Zealand for Holiday Season’s Greetings
Another year is coming to an end. The holiday season is a time for celebration, for reflection, and for giving help to those who are poor and vulnerable. This time is a symbol of kindness, of humility and of charity.
The highest value of all the major faiths is peace, and there is no reason why people from all backgrounds cannot live in harmony. There is a need for tolerance and understanding between cultural and religious groups in New Zealand and Australia's diverse society. Diversity is strength not a threat. Everyone is our neighbour, no matter what race, creed or colour. Tolerance and fair play are our strong values.
I acknowledge that there are many challenges still needed to be overcome, and that discrimination still existed. At the same time I certainly recognise that much has been achieved in my lifetime in New Zealand. And there is every reason to be hopeful about the future.
Through Sada-e-Watan Sydney,I urge everyone to join me in highlighting the importance of greater understanding and integration between different cultural and religious groups. Immigrants' values are compatible with a very diverse range of cultures - but they may all have to adapt a little to allow those underlying New Zealand/ Australian values to be sustained.
As the holiday season and another year approach, let us take time to consider what is really important – family and friends. We tend to hold our families a little closer, realizing that what we take for granted can change in an instant. We need to remember our friends who have endured great sacrifices or those who have suffered great loss in Asia and the Pacific region.
Thanks for the love and support everyone has given me over my seven years in Parliament and I look forward to continuing to develop these relationships. During this festive season please drive carefully and have great holidays as we look forward to a very prosperous New Year 2010.
Dr Ashraf Choudhary QSO
Member of New Zealand Parliament
Spokesperson for Food Safety, Agricultural Sciences and Assoc. Spokesperson for Ethnic Affairs
Dr. Ashraf Choudhary, MP
Dr. Ashraf
Choudhary made history in becoming the first-ever elected Pakistani MP to the
New Zealand Parliament. He again, made history by becoming the first New Zealand
parliamentarian to swear allegiance on the Quran. Choudhury, a Labor MP, went
ahead with his plans to take oath on the Quran in the face of criticism that he
was breaking a "centuries-old tradition" by doing so, but he had to bring his
own Quran on which to take the oath. Dr.Choudhary donated his Quran to
parliamentary officials, who did not have one.
Choudhary, Born to a poor farming family in Sialkot Punjab province before
Migrating to New Zealand in 1976. A Pakistani agro-scientist, Dr. Ashraf
Chaudhry, a graduate of Faisalabad's Agriculture University, pursued higher
studies in UK and after obtaining his doctorate, found a job in Massey
University of New Zealand where he had been teaching as professor. He left the
university after election as Member of Parliament. While Dr. Chaudhry was
nominated by the Labor Party, with which he was associated as a candidate no
less for his distinguished contribution to agriculture sector. He specializes in
agricultural engineering, his internationally recognized work into 'zero
tillage' -- ways of planting crops without ploughing. The technology he helped
develop has been used around the world and he is an international authority on
conservation tillage technology.
It's a long way from the Punjab, his village of 'Jajy' near Sialkot, to
Palmerston North in New Zealand. And it's even further from life as a peasant to
a politician. But these are both journeys Ashraf Choudhary has made. The
enthusiasm, courage, and determination has rewarded him appropriately. Despite
of his living in New Zealand since 1976, Dr. Ashraf Choudhary has never
forgotten his Brothers and Sisters back home or his village 'Jajy'!
His parents were illiterate, never having the opportunity to go to school,
instead working their small holding at Jajy as the family had done for
generations. But Mohammed Boota was adamant his son wouldn't suffer the same
'blindness' he had. With nine children, the peasant farmer couldn't afford to
send all his children to school so it was Ashraf, the oldest son, who was chosen
to carry the family's hopes. Dr. Ashraf Choudhary remembers the 13km round trip
he used to make by foot to his school in Sialkot! He remembers all the
sacrifices that his parents had made so that he could continue with his
education. He remembers as to how his family managed to save enough to send him
to Faisalabad to study agriculture.
He is living happily with wife Samina, who is from Lahore, and three children,
Anwar, Mehreen and Atif.
"These feelings for the underdog have always been with me.", he says.
He points to his expertise in farming, education, science and research, the
environment and conservation and hopes he doesn't end up just being a spokesman
for minority ethnic groups. He regularly visits Pakistan where his sisters and
brothers remain, along with hundreds of memories from his childhood.
"It's been a long journey for me and I'm very proud of all that."
