Introduction, History & Activities:

Founded in 2003, the Petarian Association of North America or PANA is the official representative body of Petarians living in the USA and Canada. It started out with the first gathering of Petarian families at Niagara Falls in the summer of 2003 upon the invitation of Adnan Karim Qureshi, 8326/L.

PANA stands for creating and promoting brotherhood between Petarians living in North America and joining them under one umbrella so that they can network, communicate, enjoy each other’s brotherly love with respect for elders and care for youngsters, and provide and receive assistance whenever needed. PANA also stands to support the Alma Mater, Cadet College Petaro, according to our abilities. PANA also stands to support and provide assistance to any Petarian in need within North America or elsewhere in world according to its abilities and resources.

All Petarians living in North America can become members of PANA without paying any fees or dues. Petarians on student or training visa can also become members. PANATalk Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/panatalk/) is the official online tool for connecting PANA members. PANA holds its annual reunion on the last Saturday of the month of June each year.

Of the more than 450 Petarians living in North America, so far around 150 have become members of PANA. Five annual reunions have successfully been arranged in the beautiful city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. Regional reunions are being held in other cities. PANA has also been helping other Petarians through various means and guidance in trying to help them settle in Canada or the USA.

The site gives details of activities and photographs of recent get togethers.

PANA is headed by the "Chief Coordinator", who has been chosen through mutual consent over the PANATalk group. The following Petarians have held the position of Chief Coordinator over the years:

• 2004-2005      - Dr. Ikram Ghani, 7236/Q

• 2005-2006      - Rifaquat Ali Cheema, 722/L

• 2006-present  - Naeem Ahmed Saroya, 504/L

Other Petarians have played a significant role in organizing the functions in North America.

By Adnan Qureshi, 8326/L

Yet one more successful reunion of North American Petarians was held in Niagara Falls on 12 July 2008. Around 25 Petarians attended the colorful event along with their families and friends. The day started by chit chatting and meeting / greeting followed by a formal introduction by Petarians themselves. As always Petarians flew and drove from all over to attend this event - people came from as far as Wisconsin, Florida, New York and Little Rock, Arkansas.
 
Naeem Bhai 504/L presented some souvenirs which he had brought from CCP to all the Petarians who traveled a distance to attend this reunion. Special CCP caps were given to Shahid Mian Bhai 666/I, Iqbal Hamid bhai 7272/Q and Siddiqui bhai. Tshirt was given to Kamal Qadri 88125/A and 3 Petaro key chains were distributed among Imran Yaqub bhai 7174/L and others. Naeem bhai gave away his own CCP cap to Nasir Awan bhai 7729/A who was the chief organizer of the event.
 
Food was later on served and people enjoyed food and talked about Petaro. Anwar Memon bhai 48/LF brought around 10 Kilos of Gulab Jamun, Jileebi and Barfi for the Petarians which people could not finish and so every one in the park was invited to come and join the celebrations. Fahed bhai 7942/Q brought a special CCP cake.
 
It was decided to convert a days reunion to a 2 day event from next year. For this reason Iqbal Hamid bhai 7272/Q offered his services if friends want the PANA Reunion to be held in Florida. Some friends were of the opinion to hold it in Toronto for the first time and later on switch to other cities. It was also decided to put this in the forum so that other Petarians could also voice their opinion. A committee was formed for this reason among the participants to volunteer for the next year's event. It was also decided to divide PANA into minimum of 4 zones for organizational matters, namely East coast, Central zone, West zone and Canada. Naeem Saroya 504/L would continue to be the Chief Coordinator. It was also decided that one or two volunteers would be required from each coast as coordinators to arrange for the next year's reunion. All those interested to represent the zones were requested to send in their names. The formation of PANA East Coast was welcomed which was represented by Imran bhai 7174/L. It was also appreciated that PANA EC decided to use PANATalk as their Yahoogroup rather than making their own sub group. 
 
It was also decided that the next years PANA reunion would be held on the Last Saturday of month of June (June 27, 2009) and the date will not be switched.

A group photo session was held at the end and people stayed until late night as gup shup continued over cups of coffee.
 
As always it was a time well spent.
 
Friends are requested to write their own version of the days event and post photos on the group's website. Some of the pictures are posted on the PANA Talk website.

Report by Dr. I. Zafar Hamid, 7272/Q

It was a pleasure meeting and seeing so many old colleagues. Adnan, Nasir, Mani Bhai, Anwar Memon bhai, Asif, Kamal Qadri and the team had done a great job.

In my personal opinion, meeting was very productive as we were able to discuss the future happenings of PANA. Naeem Bhai was very instrumental in suggesting and guiding us through the meeting.

Before, I go any further, I would like to wish Adnan the best with his future endeavors in Pakistan.

Adnan has elaborated very nicely about the meeting and the minutes are well written. Obviously, everyone has been working for  keeping the PANA alive and healthy but it is about time, as discussed, to bring some procedure and policies in its’ administration.

Local meetings are great but to make our Alumni , the most vibrant unit, networking has to be more on the global level. May be, if we are able to streamline our Unit here, our central body will also work to get their act together.

Arranging the Annual Meeting on a more professional pattern in different regions will bring a lot more Petarians together which will benefit the members as well as our Alma Mater.

In the end, I will salute all those pioneer members who worked very hard beyond the call of their duty, to establish the foundation and give us the vision and opportunity to do what we are planning to do. Special thanks to Ikram and Bashir Memon bhai with whom I had the privilege to work with in early eighties in the establishment of Petarian Association.