STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Pakistani Civic Association of Staten Island (PCASI) will celebrate Pakistan’s 77th Independence Day Sunday, Sept. 22 at 1:30 p.m. on the South Meadow of Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden in Livingston. Led by Dr. Mohammad Khalid, president of the association, the event will include Pakistani food, music and rides and activities for children.
Recognized during the event will be Aamer Ahmad Atozai, consul general of Pakistan New York, North Shore Councilwoman Kamillah M. Hanks, Dr. Inamul Haq, a vascular surgeon on Staten Island and in Brooklyn, Dr. Fakhra Haq, an educator, and Joseph M. Gulotta, NYPD assistant chief and borough commander of Staten Island.
Raffles and games of chance – which super prizes including computers and lap tops and televisions. The suggested donation is $25 per family. The Pakistani Civic Association event is open to the public.
For further information and reservations contact Maureen McNamara at 718 948-7000.
Aamer Ahmed Atozai is a Pakistan Foreign Service officer with over two decades of experience. He holds a master of arts degree in English Literature from the University of Peshawar. His last assignment was director general, East Asia & Pacific. During his professional career, he has served at the Pakistan High Commission, the Canberra, Dhaka and the Pakistan Embassy in Moscow. Atozai is a Russian language expert and has also served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at Islamabad in various capacities. He is married and is the father of three children.
Hanks has more than 20 years experience in both the public and private sectors. In 2012 she founded the Historic Tappen Park Community Partnership, where she worked with civic leaders, community groups, and local schools to boost cultural and economic development in Stapleton and surrounding neighborhoods. She pionered Staten Island’s first YouthBuild program, which provides a pathway for out of school, out of work young adults with advanced vocational education, leadership development, job training and valuable life skills.During the onset of COVID-19, she partnered with local small business owners and students from her YouthBuild initiative and created a training program that manufactured over 5,000 face shields that were donated to firefighters, first responders and medical professionals on Staten Island and the greater New York City area. Hanks founded the Minority Women in Business Association of Staten Island to address inequities and disparities in women of color in business and was among the honorees for the Young, Gifted and Black Entrepreneurial Awards in February of 2021. She was appointed by Staten Island Borough President James Oddo to the NYC Panel for Education Policy, and served as the Staten Island representative until 2016. Hanks was the National Council of Negro Women Honoree in 2009, as well as an SIEDC 20 Under 40 Leadership Award Winner. An alumna of the Coro Neighborhood Leadership Program NYC, she was NYS Senator Diane J. Savino’s 2015 New York State Woman of Distinction honoree. In 2001, she worked with producers and starred in a Staten Island
documentary short film, “Ferry Tales,” which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2004. Hanks resides in Stapleton with her family.
Dr. Haq is board certified in general and vascular surgery as well as in venous and lymphatic surgery. He is an attending at Maimonides Medical Center and has been part of the faculty at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, specializing in treatment of venous disorders and is one of the pioneers in laser treatment of varicose veins. He is the founder and director of Laser and Varicose Vein Treatment Center in Ocean Breeze and has been recognized by City Hall and and the State Assembly of New York for his community work. Dr. Haq’s main passion is providing for education of underprivileged children. Together with his wife, Dr. Fakhra Haq, the couple has been instrumental in building 12 new schools in remote areas of Pakistan, where some 6,000 children are enrolled.
DR. FAKHRA HAQ
Dr. Haq is an educator and a specialist in teaching English to immigrant students in public schools who speak languages other than English. She initiated the after school program Project Arts and as the coordinator she wrote grants to fund it for her school with many socio-economically disadvantaged students. The grant monies helped all elementary grade students to get tickets to go to the Museum of Natural History and get Studio in a School Program to learn art from an artist. She worked for many years in public schools on Staten Island as a teacher, teacher trainer and provided training to principals. She is a permanent member at the Think Tank at NYU and participates in Curriculum Designing for these students. Dr. Haq provides community service and has received awards from the state Assembly and the Pakistani Community in New York.
BOROUGH COMMANDER GULOTTA
NYPD Assistant Chief Joseph M. Gulotta has served the Police Department for over 32 years. He is currently assigned as the commanding officer of Patrol Borough Staten Island after serving as the commanding officer of Detective Borough Brooklyn South. Gulotta has cultivated his experience in investigative assignments, with a specialty in narcotics work, to take down multiple conspiracy cases on a precinct level, and used innovative crime reduction methods to earn the unit citation for crime reduction in both 2013 and 2015 as a precinct commanding officer. A gang program was created in 2012 at his direction and was later modeled throughout the NYPD. He has held many executive positions in 14 years within the department, including commanding officer of the 73rd Precinct, 67th Precinct, Narcotics Borough Brooklyn South, Detective Borough Brooklyn South and Executive Officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn North, Patrol Borough Queens South, Detective Borough Brooklyn South, and the Criminal Enterprise Division.
