KSA-Pakistan ties touch new heights

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy warm and friendly relations. The two countries have developed strong ties in various fields. They share common views on regional and international issues and their ties have continued to grow with the passage of time. Pakistan has an embassy in Riyadh and a Consulate General in Jeddah. Pakistan Embassy was initially established in Jeddah, then moved to Riyadh and started functioning in a rented building. The new chancery building in Riyadh was inaugurated on Nov. 5, 1992.
Saudi Arabia hosts around 2.2 million expatriate Pakistan community which acts as strong bridge of friendship between the two countries. This community is making valuable contribution to the economic development of Saudi Arabia. They also help in the economic progress of Pakistan. They sent $ 5.6 billion worth of remittances (one-third of total remittances) to Pakistan during financial year 2014-2015. A large number of professionals, including doctors, engineers and auditors from Pakistan have earned good reputation for their professionalism and hard work in the Kingdom.
Expatriate Pakistanis live all over Saudi Arabia. To provide them consular services at their door steps, embassy and the consulate general of Pakistan dispatch consular teams on weekends to various cities and far-flung areas. The places they frequently visit are Dammam, Alkhobar, Dhahran, Hafr Al-Batin, Wadi Dawasser, Arar, Tabuk, Sakaka, Al-Quryat, Al-Qaseem, Hafuf, Jubail, etc. They provide consular services such as issuance of passports, attestation of documents, grant of visas and issuing of national identity cards.
Consular sections of the Embassy and Consulate General cater to the demands and needs of consular visitors. Every day over 1,500 persons visit consular section in Riyadh and a similar number in Jeddah for various consular services such as MRPs, manual passports, attestation of documents, issuance of visa for Pakistan and processing of NICOP.
Recently the Embassy has expanded the MRP set up and doubled its processing capacity up to 1200 (which was 600 previously) applications for MRP per day. The Consulate General has expanded its facility and is issuing similar number of MRPs.
On the community welfare side, the embassy ensures to have regular interaction with local authorities for extending various services to the community including measures to settle matters between Pakistan’s workers and their sponsors, assist in pursuing cases in courts, coordination with authorities to ensure they are paid their dues.
Besides daily services to the community, a weekly Open House is held in the Embassy once a week where the ambassador listens to complaints of community members and tries to redress their problems.