Pakistan engineers have made huge contribution to the national infrastructure development of Saudi Arabia, the Pakistani ambassador to the Kingdom, Mohammed Naeem Khan, told a gathering at the 38th Technical Meeting of the Institution of Engineers of Pakistan-Saudi Arabian Chapter in Riyadh on Friday.
The main event of the evening program was a presentation made by Syed Mubashir Kirmani, chief engineer of Rasheed Engineering Consultants, who spoke on “Tsunamis: Causes, Effects and Preparedness.”
Prof. Nazar H. Malik, the Saudi Aramco Chair in Electrical Power, made the opening remarks and introduced the speakers to the audience. The meeting was attended by Pakistani engineers, architects, and designers in the city .
Stressing the predominant role of Pakistani engineers in the Kingdom's development programs, Ambassador Khan said: “Be it a government building or a road, our engineers were there for the construction of such projects."
Appreciating the yeoman services rendered by the institution with regard to providing scholarships for deserving students, Khan said that the group should take a step forward to create rapport between the community in Pakistan and the private sector companies in the Kingdom.
“The institution should tell the community back home about the job opportunities available in the Kingdom,” Khan said, describing it as one way that the group could give a helping hand to those who want to come to the Kingdom for employment.
He said the recent visit of Pakistani Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, was highly successful in pushing bilateral relations to new heights.
According to Khan, bilateral trade was $5 billion last year and Saudi investments have been flowing into Pakistan. Tuwairqi Holdings of Saudi Arabia and Posco, the world’s third largest steelmaker by market value, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Pakistan for backward and forward integration of the Tuwairqi Steel Mills (TSML), Pakistan’s first private sector integrated environment-friendly steel manufacturing complex. Estimated investment hovers around $900 million for realization of all these projects.
Under the MoU, Pakistan will facilitate TSML in developing mines and the utilisation of iron ore as raw material for TSML’s relevant plants.
TSML recently kicked off the commercial production at its direct reduced iron (DRI) making plants with the capacity to produce up to 1.28 million tons per annum of high quality DRIs. The first phase has been completed with an overall investment of $350 million.
Making a comprehensive presentation on tsunami, Kirmani recalled that the Luta Bay wave in 1958 was the largest tsunami ever recorded in history. It was triggered by an earthquake that caused massive landslides and waves running to a height of 576 meters.
Referring to the tsunami on March 11,2011 on the Pacific coast of Tohaku in Japan, he said that it was generally believed that the tsunami was generated by an earthquake with a magnitude of 9. He pointed out, however, that several analysts, after analyzing Japanese seismograms, have agreed that there was no magnitude 9 earthquake but that the tsunami was caused by a nuclear explosion that was a result of sabotage.
Pakistan engineers commended for their services
