Sada-e-Watan
Sydney ™
sadaewatan@gmail.com
Muhammad Asif, Iftikhar Rana,CG Azam & Sadaqat Saddiq
PAK LINK
Australia Celebrated its 3rd Anniversary and launched Website
www.paklink.com.au
(Coverage by: Syed Zafar
Hussain, Editor-in-Chief Sada-e-Watan Sydney)
On Friday 11 May Pak Link Magazine in conjunction with Citilink Finance hosted its third birthday and celebrated in magnificent style with the fine cuisine provided by the community favourite venue of Himalayas grand function centre in Granville.
Kashif Amjad Vice President Pakistan Australia Business Council commenced the evening’s ceremony with an invitation to Maulana Nazir ul Hasan Thanvi for recitation of the Holy Quran and special dua for Pak Link.
Over 20 community, political, diplomatic and religious leaders were guests of honour and each one was individually introduced. Miss Mehreen sang Australia & Pakistan both national anthems as the 200 guests stood and sang the words to the Qaumi Tarana and Advance Australia Fair.
Over 50 sponsors who have advertised in the magazine were thanked as well as the 100 retail premises the magazine is stocked in and distributed free of charged. The readership in three years has grown to about 30,000 ethnic as well as local people. The official website for Pak Link was launched under a web address as
www.paklink.com.au. Paklink is the only Pakistani community based magazine that is published monthly as opposed to every second month before.Pak Link was recently invited as a select multicultural ethnic media gathering and briefing from the Prime Minister Julia Gillard just a few days before the event.
Mr Muhammad Asif Group CEO of Citilink Finance and Chairman of Pak Link discussed how this the magazine started with losses paid for by Citilink as an alternative community voice and praised the other media partners like SBS Urdu and Mr Zafar Hussain of Sada-e-Watan
www.sadaewatansydney.com for their help and continued support. It should also be noted that this was Mr Peter Heywards, designate High Commissioner Of Australia in Pakistan, first function to meet the Pakistan Australia communityThe Hon Ms Michelle Rowland MP Member for Greenway spoke on behalf of the Prime Minister and proceeded to formally invite all other speakers for speeches. We would like to thank Ms Rowland for her amazing effort in trying to make the function a great success. Ms Rowland also mentioned the importance of independent media given the recent enquiries into the News Corporation activities globally.
The following dignitaries spoke on the occasion and praised the contribution and efforts made by Paklink to promote the Multiculturism in the society.
Mr Azam Muhammad Consul General
Mr Peter Heyward High Commissioner Designate
The Hon Julie Owens Federal Member for Parramatta
The Hon Tony Issa, State MP for Granville, also represented Premier of NSW Honourable Barry O’Farrell
The Hon. John Robertson, State MP for Blacktown and NSW Opposition Leader
Group Chairman Citilink Group and President of Pakistan Association of Australia Mr Iftikhar Rana gave the closing speech thanking every one of the guests and sponsors and readers that have made Pak Link a continuing success. He further spoke about the importance of having a community newspaper such as Paklink, as it has linked communities together and has made the Australian Pakistani community better well known and well recognised.
Mr Asif was presented with a special letter from the Prime Minister Julia Gillard congratulating Pak Link on their birthday from MP Michelle Rowland.
Miss Mehreen continued with some traditional Pakistani music
The guests were treated to a sumptuous array of traditional Pakistani cuisine of curries , rice, tandoori naans and a special vegetable sizzing hot tray and carrot halwa as desert.
All the guests and dignitaries took plenty of time after dinner to intermingle and chat and take photographs.
Pak Link would like to acknowledge the following dignitaries for attending.
The Hon. Michelle Rowland MP,The Hon Julie Owen MP,The Hon Amanda Fazio MLC ,
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The Hon Shaoquett Moselmane –MLC,The Hon. Mr Tony Issa MP Granville,The Hon. Peter Primrose –MLC,The Hon. Barbara Perry, MP Auburn,His Excellency Peter Heyward ,Designate High Commissioner of Australia in Pakistan, Mr.Azam Muhammed Consul General of Pakistan Representing High Commissioner of Pakistan and Sadaqat Saddiq Director of CitiLink Finance. |
And as a message of thanks each of the sponsors were thanked in speeches one by one via a special video presentation made by the IT support and sponsor of Pak Link and Citilink, Systronic IT Services of Mr Sadaqat Siddiq
(www.systronic.com.au).Pak Link would like to thank the continuing support of community organisations like the Pakistan Association of Australia, Pakistan Australia Business Council, Islamic Republic of Pakistan Consulate and High Commission Offices. It would like to thank its media partners Sada-e-Watan and SBS Urdu.
In the generous celebrations the elaborate dinner was provided free of cost to over 200 attendees.
A special thanks from Pak Link to the Himalayas team and their recent loss of Mr Mushtaq father Haji Khushi Mohammad who especially attended the event straight from the airport.
