Diplomatic community bids adieu to Austrian envoy

Islamabad: To bid farewell to the ambassador of Austria, Dr Brigitta Baha, the high commissioner of Australia, Margaret Adamson and spouse Marek Krol hosted a dinner at their residence. The event was attended by close friends of the guest of honour, both from the diplomatic community and local residents.

“I was delighted to meet Brigitta again when I came to Pakistan,” she said after extending a warm welcome to her guests. “We had been together in Vienna when we were young diplomats.” She then spoke of the many pleasant times they had spent together; their interaction in diplomatic affairs and concluded by wishing Dr Baha bon voyage and hoping they would meet up again somewhere.

Dr Baha thanked the hostess for her hospitality and other guests for their love and support during her stay in Pakistan; related a couple of humorous anecdotes of how people kept mistaking ‘Austria’ for ‘Australia;’ how it had been challenging as well as exciting to be posted in Pakistan; the support she had received from her colleagues as well as the Pakistanis she interacted with; her effort to strengthen cultural ties by inviting musicians of both countries to play together and concluded with the hope she would be able to visit Pakistan in future, especially as a friendship association between Austria and Pakistan had been established.

Dr Baha has been a very active and ‘easy to meet’ diplomat and as a consequence she was a popular person with the local community. As patron of the ASG she attended as many programs as she could and joined groups on tours of local places and cities, travelling in coasters - and even a Volkswagen once! In these days, when security concerns have put a barrier between diplomats and locals to freely interact with each other, her attitude was appreciated and she will be missed by all who know her.