Pakistan’s Relations with Sierra Leone

A session titled ‘Pakistan’s relations with Sierra Leone’ was held on June 3, 2021 as part of IPS’ Understanding Africa Project.

The session was chaired by IPS Vice Chairman Ambassador (r) Syed Abrar Hussain, addressed by Sana Noor, Assistant Advisor, Federal Tax Ombudsman and Michael Trucker, MPhil scholar from Sierra Leone at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), whereas Senior Research Associate at IPS Ambassador (r) Tajammul Altaf and IPS Non-Resident Fellows Dr Tughral Yamin, Associate Dean, National University of Science and Technology (NUST) and Dr Maliha Zaib Khan, Assistant Professor, NUML formed the discussion panel.

The speakers highlighted the importance of strengthening people-to-people contacts between both countries maintaining that students from Sierra Leone and other African countries have not only studied and graduated from Pakistan but many also got the opportunity to study at the country’s Foreign Office Academy. They argued that this valuable human resource could become ambassadors of Pakistan in the African country.

At the session, the use of Pakistani media platforms especially Pakistan Television (PTV) was also touched upon to project Pakistan’s narrative and induce interest within the African masses.

It is pertinent to mention here that IPS’ Understanding Africa project envisages to build an in-depth knowledge and multidisciplinary study on African countries and to revive Pak-Africa relations in the 21st century.