Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) leading a delegation Office Bearers and Executive Board visited the Palestine Embassy and held a meeting with H.E. Ahmed Rabei, Ambassador of Palestine to express solidarity on behalf of the business community with the Palestinian people who have suffered human and financial losses due to Israel’s recent aggression against them. Fatma Azim Senior Vice President ICCI and ICCI Executive Board Members including Javed Iqbal, Umar Hussain, Hafiz Bilal Munir, Naeem ur Rehman Paracha, Muhammad Shakir, Omais Khattak, Shakeel Munir, Shaukat Hayat, Ali Akram Khan and others were in the delegation. Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that the Pakistani nation has great love and respect for Palestine and we as a whole nation felt very disturbed and shocked by the Israeli’s aggression against the innocent Palestinian people in Gaza. He said that we as a nation stand by the people of Palestine and strongly condemn the Israeli’s aggression against them. He urged that the world powers should play a role for a permanent solution of the Palestine issue to establish lasting peace in the region. He also presented a cheque of Rs.0.45 million donated by the Office Bearers and Executive Board members of ICCI and said that ICCI would make efforts for collection of more funds from the business community for the Palestinian people affected by Israeli’s aggression. He also discussed with the Palestine Ambassador the possibilities of promoting trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Palestine that would bring progress and prosperity for the two nations. He said that ICCI has already connected the businessmen of both countries from pharmaceutical, rice & IT sectors and would host a business delegation of Palestine including Arab countries in July-August this year to connect them with right counterparts in Pakistan in order to explore JVs and business partnerships. He said that Pakistani private sector was foreseeing good prospects for itself in consultancy services in architectural and construction sector in Palestine and efforts would be made to capitalize on them. Fatma Azim Senior Vice President ICCI and members of delegation also expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine and reiterated that the Pakistani nation would continue to raise its voice for a free and independent state of Palestine till the achievement of this goal.   H.E. Ahmed Rabei, Ambassador of Palestine expressed thanks to the ICCI delegation for showing solidarity with the Palestinian people and donating a cheque for their financial support. He also expressed gratitude on behalf of the Palestinian people for the people and the Government of Pakistan for showing their full support through rallies and protests for the cause of a free and independent state of Palestine. He said that Pakistan's efforts for speaking up and pushing for an emergency session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and for the UN General Assembly were greatly appreciated by the Palestinian nation. He further said that Pakistan played an important role in steering the discussion and building a consensus for Palestine cause, which was laudable. He was of the view that the solidarity and support of the people including the business community and the Government of Pakistan will be remembered, not only by the Palestinians, but by the entire world.