By Sahar Foladi
City of Greater Dandenong’s mayor hosted Pakistan’s High Commissioner for Pakistan and the International boxing champion Asif Hazara on Friday 23 June.
The three parties gathered in the Greater Dandenong Civic Centre with community members to celebrate Mr Hazara’s recent win in Melbourne in the super flyweight category.
Pakistan High Commissioner, Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri congratulated Mr Hazara on his win and said he was “delighted to meet Syed Asif Shah Hazara.”
Also there were Consul General for Pakistan in Melbourne, Syed Moazzam Hussain Shah and the Honorary Investment Consul for Pakistan in Australia, Adam Sadiqzai.
Greater Dandenong mayor Eden Foster said she was honoured to welcome the Ambassador and Mr Hazara in Greater Dandenong and shared a snippet of the buzzing cultural hotspots of the municipality in her speech to the guests.
“Asif has based himself in Dandenong and it’s no wonder. Our city is the most culturally diverse city in Australia.
“We are celebrated for this diversity and encourage all of our residents to honour this by sharing in one another’s traditions and cultures,” she said.
Mr Hazara had mentioned he’d love to have boxing events held in Dandenong to showcase the talents within the diverse communities and bring along the Pakistani team from Quetta, where he’s trained them as their coach.
Cr Foster said there may be a possibility for this in the future.
“We have more than 2000 residents living here in Greater Dandenong who come from Pakistan, so I know he’ll draw a crowd.”
