Pakistan crossed another milestone on Thursday when it successfully launched, with China’s help, its first communications satellite on board China’s satellite launch vehicle from the Xichang satellite launch centre in Sichuan province, thus joining those nations who own and operate communications satellites. Pakistan feels beholden to China for extending help, without any strings, in yet another coveted field. Pakistani engineers have been closely associated with their Chinese counterparts in the execution of this project to acquire the required expertise.
This historic achievement made on a historic occasion, the anniversary of the first session of the Constituent Assembly in 1947, would, one hopes, regenerate the feeling that all is not lost, even among that section of society that is badly affected by the buffeting array of existentialist problems. Pakistan also has had the singular honour of producing the atomic bomb in the face of the strictest possible worldwide sanctions.
If the nation can take time off the pressing issues it faces and look at such a positive record of achievements, it would certainly be in a mood to celebrate on two counts: one for the achievements themselves and the other for having a sincere friend like China, which has stood by with us in good times and bad. Listing its assistance would not be so easy, considering not only the different spheres in which it has been extended, but also the lasting benefit the projects executed with its help carry for the progress of the country and its security and defence needs. In every field, the Chinese ungrudgingly offered their know-how to us. Would that our rulers grasp the value of strengthening our bonds with Beijing and getting away from the lure of the West!
MOHAMMAD AHSAN SHAMIM
Karachi
