ISLAMABAD: The federal government’s directives for selling a historic building in central Washington, DC have been carried out.
Abdul Hafeez Khan, a Pakistani-American who submitted the winning bid of $7.1 million, had his acquisition of the property approved by the federal cabinet, according to reports published on Thursday.
Today, a ceremony was held in Washington, DC, at the Waldorf Astoria’s Lincoln Library to mark the occasion.
Representatives Jacqueline Crockett and Gregory Meeks, as well as former representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, were present.
Johnson gave a speech in which he congratulated Khan on the purchase of the historic structure. In her well-wishes for his future success, she lauded his past efforts.
During his remarks, Pakistan’s Ambassador Masood Khan voiced his gratitude to the Cabinet for approving the sale and transfer of the land. He also made it clear that no additional assets were up for grabs.
Khan, meantime, expressed appreciation to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the federal cabinet for considering his proposal.
He was quite proud to own a building that has been serving the Pakistani community for decades, he added, because he is a dual citizen of the United States and Pakistan.
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Downtown Washington, DC citizens and political officials have been vocal about their dissatisfaction with the state of the former Pakistani embassy for nearly two decades.
According to The Associated Press, the enormous building on the junction of 22nd and R streets stands out like a sore thumb in the otherwise affluent district.
The windows are boarded up with plywood, there are sleeping bags and empty bottles strewn about the doorways that have been closed, and tall weeds are pushing up through the asphalt in the fenced-off parking lot.
As long as the State Department considered the building to be diplomatic property, the city could do nothing about it.
However, the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) found that the government spent about $7 million repairing and renovating two historical buildings on embassy row in Washington, DC, despite the fact that one of the buildings is now in a dangerously dilapidated state and the other is on the verge of collapse.
Consequently, the federal cabinet opted to sell the building due to the high cost of maintenance at its meeting on November 30, 2022.
