Outgoing Pakistani Consul General Aftab A. Khokher, 4th right, and outgoing Press Consul Sohail Ali Khan, 3rd left, with Arab News Editor in Chief Mohammed Fahad Al-Harthi and senior editors during their visit to Arab News office in Jeddah on Sunday. Also seen is Deputy Consul General Asif Memon, 2nd left.

Pakistani Consul General Aftab A. Khokher is leaving the Kingdom after a memorable three-year assignment in Jeddah.

Khokher, 51, is a career diplomat, and has been appointed as his country’s ambassador to Lebanon. He will take up the posting in Beirut later this month.

Jeddah is considered a challenging assignment for Pakistani diplomats because of the large, highly active and politically connected Pakistani expatriate community.

On Sunday, the Gujranwala-born Khokher and the outgoing press consul, Sohail Ali Khan, who is being posted back to Pakistan, visited Arab News office in Jeddah and met with Editor in Chief Mohammed Fahad Al-Harthi and senior editors of the newspaper.

They thanked Arab News for playing a positive role in highlighting the Pakistani expatriate community’s issues through the newspaper. Al-Harthi presented Khokher with a memento for his distinguished service to his community and wished him well in his new assignment.

A father of two sons, Ibrahim, 12, and Moosa, 10, Khokher thanked Allah for having achieved some of the goals he had set for himself when he took over from Abdul Salik Khan as the consul general on Jan. 13, 2013.

“I consider myself lucky and a.m. thankful to Allah, our government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for having given me the opportunity to do some good for the community and the country,” he told Arab News.

His wife, Afshan, was fully engaged in community work in Jeddah. “It was pretty hectic for her because of the extensive community, diplomatic and social welfare activities in Jeddah,” said Khokher. “She played her part by promoting a positive image of Pakistan through soft diplomacy,” he said. The outgoing consul general said he and his family are going to the Lebanon with good memories of Jeddah, and that he achieved a great deal during the Saudi assignment. “The one thing that I can state here is that I managed to institutionalize the system of administration at our consulate in Jeddah,” he said.

“Everyone is now treated equally. Whoever visits the consulate is given the same treatment reserved for, say, a VIP. We ended the ‘wasta’ culture. All appointments for passport services has to be done telephonically or via Internet. Nobody can jump the queue anymore.”

Khokher said he is proud of the work done by his team during the 2013 general amnesty. “We did all that we could to alleviate the suffering of undocumented Pakistani expatriates,” he said.

He said during his tenure the capacity of the consulate was doubled. “If there was one fee counter for passports, I introduced two; if there was one fingerprinting counter, I established three,” he said. “The functioning of the consulate was completely streamlined,” he added.

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