NEW PREMISES OF THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF PAKISTAN SYDNEY TO FURTHER FACILITATE OUR VALUED CLIENTS & COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Date: 10th Feb 2016
It is a matter of immense pleasure and great satisfaction to announce that Government of Pakistan has approved the hiring of the new Chancery premises of the Consulate General of Pakistan in Sydney. Insha Allah (God willing), we shall be starting our operations at Level 3, 109 Pitt Street, Sydney CBD NSW 2000 from Thursday, 18 February 2016. This move has been aimed at further facilitating the Australian Pakistani Community and other Australian clients who were finding the existing premises for consular services, too congested and insufficient. In 2007, when the existing office premises of the Consulate were established at Level 7 of 32 Martin Place Sydney, there were fewer Pakistanis in Australia and the demand for consular services was also very less. With the passage of time and, particularly after the introduction of the facility of Machine Readable Passports (MRP) in May 2013, the number of visitors has been increasing significantly in Sydney, with every passing month. The small waiting room for the visitors, which was deemed sufficient prior to 2013, had become too congested in last three years.But we had to continue there so as to complete the term of the lease, which ended on 31 December 2015. In last over six months, our team in the Consulate had been effectively working on exploring various options to set up a bigger Consular Hall to further improve our facilities for the welfare and convenience of the visitors. We effectively sensitized the authorities in Islamabad, particularly in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Commerce, to obtain necessary approvals. The unflinching support of Her Excellency Ms. Naela Chohan, the High Commissioner for Pakistan in Canberra is praiseworthy, without which the achievement of this milestone would not have been possible.
Finally, we are moving to our new office premises on Saturday, 13 February 2016. After settling down in our new offices, we shall start functioning effectively over there from Thursday, 18 February 2016. The inconvenience caused to the community and our valued clients, during three days of shifting (from 15 to 17 February 2016) is highly regretted. Even during this period, our efficient and hardworking staff will not hesitate to facilitate the community / other clients, if there will be any emergency situation. However, for routine consular services, including MRP processing, the staff in the High Commission at Canberra will welcome all our clients from Sydney / New South Wales. The following features of the new office premises are worth mentioning:
a) The new premises are spacious as compared to the existing office;
b) The location is more convenient, as it is only 200 meters from the main platforms of the Wynyard Train Station and York Street Bus Terminals.
c) The Waiting Area is at least three times bigger than the existing arrangement. We will accommodate at least 60 people at one time in the new premises as compared to only 25 in the existing office.
d) A new and spacious Consular Hall is being established with better facilities for the visitors.
e) There was no conference room in the existing office. Now we shall have a separate Board Room for organizing B2B and other meetings of the visiting Pakistani business delegations and exporters with their Australian counterparts.
f) We have also ordered installation of an efficient and user friendly telephone system through Telstra Business Solutions, the market leader in the telecommunication industry in Australia.
The service quality and efficiency of the Consulate General has remained satisfactory, at least in last three years, due to regular incremental improvements that we have been introducing since early 2013. The initiative of hiring new premises will further improve the service quality of the Consulate. Sky is the limit for us and we intend to continuously better our standards and improve the environment to the satisfaction of our valued clients and the community.
Abdul Aziz Uqaili
Consul General & Trade Commissioner
