A high-profile delegation from the Iranian Logistics & Transportation Organization led by its Deputy Hamid Raza Shahraki Sanavi visited the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry to look into the possibility of joining hands with the business community of Karachi for facilitating the pilgrims during their sacred journeys to Iran and Iraq.
While highlighting concerns and challenges pilgrims face, the Iranian delegation assured to offer the finest travel facilities to the pilgrims as they were keen to make the holy pilgrimages to Iran easier for Pakistani pilgrims.
Iranian Consul General Hassan Nourian, President KCCI Mohammed Tariq Yousuf, Vice President KCCI Mohammad Haris Agar, Chairman Diplomatic Missions & Embassies Liaison Subcommittee and KCCI Managing Committee Members were also present at the meeting. In contrast, the Iranian delegation, besides the leader of the delegation and Iran CG, also comprised of Daryoush Bagher Javan, Reza Nafissi, Naser Kalantari, Habibullah Jamshid and Leila Eslamian.
Expressing appreciation to KCCI for arranging a meeting with the Iranian delegation, Consul General Hassan Norian said that today’s meeting was mainly focused on pilgrims’ facilitation during their visit to Iran and Iraq and exploring ways and means for joining hands with the business community of Karachi so that the holy pilgrimage could be made easier for the pilgrims from Karachi. “I hope that today’s discussions yield good results in terms of facilitating the pilgrims as well as our businesses.”
President KCCI Mohammed Tariq Yousuf, in his remarks, stated that a large number of pilgrims have been regularly visiting Iran and Iraq from Karachi, hence, it was very necessary to have a smooth transportation and logistics system between the two brotherly countries which would be a great help to general public. “Some progress has been made to facilitate pilgrims in conducting their religious obligations but a lot more needs to be done by both countries”, he added.
He also stressed the need to provide an institutional framework to efficiently regulate, streamline, manage and provide better facilities to pilgrims so that they were able to carry out their religious obligation in a smooth and organized manner. “The federal government in collaboration with provincial governments must also ensure security and other logistic arrangements such as setting up a Camp Office and residential blocks for pilgrims on both sides of the border.”
President KCCI also underscored the need for capacity building of Pilgrims Managing Committee so that the movement of pilgrims from Quetta to Taftan and also from Taftan to Quetta could be efficiently managed in addition to provision of security and welfare services. “Moreover, in the present era of digitalization, Pilgrims Monitoring System in the form of a Mobile App and an SMS Service must also be introduced to facilitate the pilgrims”, he added and hoped to see more cooperation between the two countries in all the spheres of economy.
CAPTION:
President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry Mohammed Tariq Yousuf presenting crest to Leader of Iranian Delegation and Deputy Logistics & Transportation Organization Iran Hamid Raza Shahraki Sanavi during the visit of Iranian delegation to KCCI. Consul General of Iran Hassan Nourian, Vice President Mohammed Haris Agar, Chairman Diplomatic Missions & Embassies Liaison Subcommittee Ziaul Arfeen