Report on ninth annual

Pakistan Day on Capitol Hill

June 27^th, 2001

Washington, DC

Dear Board Members:

It was a pleasure seeing you on our ninth annual Pakistan Day on

Capitol Hill. I greatly appreciate the fact that you took time out

from your busy schedule and attended our program. Our annual program

would have remained incomplete without active participation from

friends and supporters like your self.

Keeping the past traditions, this year's program turned out to be a

success once again. Our members had put in a lot of hard work and

effort in arranging this event. I would like to acknowledge the hard

work and participation of Dr. Murtaza Arain (Illinois), Omar Bokhari

(Virginia), Sadaf Rehman (Washington DC), Ashraf Abbasi (Houston),

Azam Khan Swati (Houston), Tariq Khan (Washington DC), Khwaja Ashraf

(California), Sher Aly Khwaja (California) and Victor Gill

(Pennsylvania).

For your record, I would like to summarize the proceedings of the

ninth annual Pakistan Day on Capitol Hill:

The program started on the evening of June 26th , 2001 with a welcome

dinner in the Embassy of Pakistan, hosted by the Pakistani American

Congress. The dinner was attended by local Pakistani American

community members from Washington DC, as well as activists from

Michigan, Texas, California, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois,

Massachusetts, Ohio, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia. Also prominent

amongst the guests was Mr. Stephen Cohen from the Brookings Institute.

The dinner provided a great opportunity for the activists to network

with others and discuss strategies for future events.

Next day's session was again divided into two sessions. The morning

session was addressed by the Ambassador of Pakistan Dr. Maleeha Lodhi,

Assistant Secretary of State Ms. Christina Rocca and National Security

Council’s Director for South Asia Mr. Harry K. Thomas Jr. A brief

question-answer session followed. About fifty people attended the

morning session including officials from the State Department.

The evening session was more lively than last year’s. Thirty five

congressmen and/or their staffers attended the session and spoke about

the US-Pakistan relations and prospects of peace in South Asia.

Prominent amongst the speakers were Congressman David Bonior

(Michigan), Congressman Henry Hyde (Illinois), Congresswoman Shelly

Berkley (Nevada), Congressman Major Owens (New York) and Congressman

James Moran (Virginia).

At the end of the program, amidst warm applause, the outgoing

President of Pakistani American Congress, Dr. Riaz Ahmad, handed over

the administration to the newly elected President Dr. Nisar Chaudhry

(Maryland) and his six member executive committee.

Once again I would like to thank all the activists who helped make

this program a big success. I am counting on the support of these

committed individuals to guide and lead this organization into the

next millennium.

Kind Regards,

Dr. Riaz Ahmad

President, PAC

1999-2001