Pakistan’s Focus Is on Its Economy: Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh in Sacramento, California  

By Ras H. Siddiqui

Pictures by Syed Romeel Quddus, Azmi Gill and Ras Siddiqui

The Pakistani American community in the Sacramento, California area was honored to host Pakistan’s current Ambassador to Washington, the honorable Rizwan Saeed Sheikh at Kamboh House in Loomis (a private residence), on Sunday, August 17, 2025. Close to a hundred people attended this “Meet and Greet” as our host Ali Maqsood termed it.

 

It turned out to be quite an evening as the Ambassador has a great sense of humor along with his other skills. This occasion was the latest official public visit of a sitting Pakistani Ambassador to California’s capital city, since Ambassador Masood Khan visited us in 2023 in connection with the sister province agreement between California and Pakistani Punjab. Almost a decade ago (2016) Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani was here, and before that, Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi in the year 2004.

Part of the invitation to this hurriedly arranged private event said that “Pakistan is gaining significant attention on the international stage. To learn how this happened, what the future holds for our motherland, and why Pakistan has become so important in the eyes of the USA and the world, please join us.” And it did turn out to be an illuminating evening with some out-of-town dignitaries present including Deputy Consul General Muhammad Mubashir Khan, the Friends of Pakistan organizational leadership, namely Arif Mansuri (Chairman) and Jamal Khawaja (President), and Chairman of the Council of Pakistan Dr Imran Sharief. 

Dinner catered by Kabab Corner was served first and there was ample time for everyone to socialize over chai and dessert before the ambassador arrived. The formalities began in the very capable hands of event emcee Zaeem Ali. In keeping with tradition, the opening was a Qur’an recitation or Tilawat which was presented by Professor Muhammad Ahmed Awan.

Host Ali Maqsood also said a few words, welcomed everyone and amongst other things also added his concerns about the current content of some Pakistan TV dramas which the Ambassador responded to with humor!  That aside the host also made some relevant points about promoting activism amongst Pakistanis in local politics, in California, the fourth largest economy of the world. And his daughter Fatemah Ali followed up with a great speech promoting Pakistani culture and language within the family and spoke very fondly about her frequent visits to Pakistan and its great mangoes.

Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh is a career diplomat with almost two decades of foreign service experience in key areas. He asked whether he should speak in either English or Urdu at this event and the popular response was for the latter. This report will be translating his speech delivered in Urdu and there could be some nuances that could have been lost or are difficult to translate exactly. But we will attempt to do our best here.

The Ambassador thanked the hosts and everyone else for attending the event and said that he had been in three cities in three days as this was a busy Pakistan Independence Day period and he was trying to keep up. This year these celebrations have an added importance, he informed. Our quest for peaceful co-existence was tested recently. Based on untruths, a drama was played out by our adversary (India) which could have been for their own domestic purposes, and to possibly provide political benefits for the party in power there as elections loomed. That party there (BJP) has often tried to benefit from playing a negative Pakistan card to help them.

An event (Pahalgam) which had nothing to do with Pakistan occurred deep in Indian held Kashmir almost 230 kilometers from the Line of Control (LOC) and within minutes without any proof they blamed Pakistan. If with 700,000 troops and security personnel in Kashmir, India cannot prevent such events, then it needs to look inwards instead of blaming outside players. But they not only blamed us but even senior people in their media acted irrationally and claimed that the destruction of Pakistan was imminent as Operation Sindoor was launched a couple of weeks later.

Pakistan is a responsible country which is aware that it is located in a politically sensitive and volatile region where any small mistake by any party can end up becoming a dangerous escalation and could cause a great deal of damage, said the ambassador. We initially tried diplomacy and asked that an independent and impartial investigation be conducted to ascertain what really had happened. But they whipped up a frenzy and attacked civilian targets in our country, claiming that extremist elements were hiding there, and in the process, ended up killing women, children, and senior citizens.

We still tried not to escalate but then many of their planes started heading towards us and we had no other option but to retaliate. At one point we had twenty of their planes locked in as targets, but we held back and only chose the ones which we thought were an immediate threat and shot down six of them. Then they decided to raise the war level and attacked our military bases and that is when we decided that our holding back was being perceived as a sign of weakness. We decided that enough was enough and announced that they should wait for our reply. Within a short window of time (3-4 hours) Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos was carried out during which many of their military (and not civilian) facilities were targeted.

After that operation, the Ambassador said that he got a local call (being the Pakistan Ambassador in Washington) with a message that they are somewhat ready! And if you (Pakistan want to end this, we (America) would like to play a role. He said that he contacted Pakistan immediately because we did not want this war in the first place. We decided to accept mediation even when we had the upper hand. Pakistan’s focus right now is on fixing its economy. It is interesting that whenever our economy starts to stabilize, our neighbor starts something, said Sheikh.

Ambassador Sheikh recalled that it was an intensely eventful night at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington and when the ceasefire was announced in the morning by President Trump himself via a tweet, the news was welcomed. We are grateful to President Trump for his leadership in brokering a ceasefire, he said, even though India does not wish to acknowledge his role even now. India has officially denied the role of the US President about twenty times while President Trump has said over forty times that he had brokered it!

This has been a welcome victory for us, perhaps because in the past few years we had begun to doubt our own capabilities, he said. After this conflict “Pakistaniyat” has been re-awakened in the fifth largest (population wise) country in the world. Our confidence is back! Two hundred and fifty million people are too many to be discounted or ignored. Due to our performance in this conflict, our stature has been elevated on the world stage. President Trump has himself tweeted about the trade agreement reached between our two countries. A great new opportunity has opened up for us, and we cannot afford to waste it.

The Ambassador did go into other areas such as Pakistan’s current and future role acting as a bridge between America and China, the two largest economies in the world. But he did point out that he did not foresee almost a million Pakistanis living in China anytime in the future as there already are in the United States so that our relationship with the US cannot be overlooked. America is Pakistan’s largest trading partner too.

After a vigorous Question & Answer session a green and white cake was cut by Ambassador Sheikh to mark Pakistan’s Independence Day. He was scheduled to be at the California State Capitol the next day where a Resolution sponsored by Senator Melissa Hurtado was presented to mark the occasion and to recognize the positive role played by Pakistani Americans in California. Some pictures from that event are included in this report.