Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – January 17, 1997

Fazeh came early in the morning. He appealed for the possibility of holding the women's sports competition of Islamic countries in Pakistan. We had rain last night and today, which makes me happy. We had a drought this year. The board of trustees of Mahdia town of Qom came and asked for help. I said that we have seen one billion and several million tomans in the 2016 budget and we are giving loans. They expressed their gratitude for my past help; In addition to cash donations, I have provided basic needs such as water, electricity and gas. They said that the plan is to build 13,000 residential units for students, with all urban needs. The director of Al-Zahra community (s) [Sisteran seminary] came to Qom; He asked for help and a loan.

Mr. Sahibzada Yaqub Khan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan came. He brought the letter of Mr. [Farooq] Leghari, the president. He has invited me to the summit of Islamic countries in the spring of next year. In the letter, the preliminary meeting of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is mentioned, which shows that, despite the previous appointment, they want to present it as a full meeting of the leaders, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is worried that this will cause the next meeting to not be held in Tehran, or it will be weak. Recently, the Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference said that it is unlikely that there will be two summits in one year and said that considering the fact that it is not clear who the president is in Iran, it is already difficult to make a decision. We talked about Afghanistan issues and relations between our two countries.

Expediency Council had a meeting. We passed two decrees, and the third decree, which is about the anti-narcotics law, remained half-finished. The second one was related to the approvals of the seven-member commission [land transfer]. In the evening, a group of Quran reciters came and performed a program. I also spoke to them. A five-year-old child, named "Mohammed Hossein Tabatabayi", from Qom, memorizes the entire Quran with translation; I tried, it worked. I gave awards and encouragement. Iftar was my guest.