Consul General of the Russian Federation in Karachi Andrey V Demidov hosted at the Russian Consulate General a well organised exhibition of annotated historical photographs and copies of the original correspondence that presented in a chronological order landmark moments of Russian and Pakistani relationship from 1947 onwards.
The pictorial exhibition of the eventful and multi-dimensional association of 65 years commenced with a letter from the then foreign minister of Pakistan Sir Zafarullah Khan to the then deputy foreign minister of USSR Andrei Gromyko, where the later invited the Russian government to establish diplomatic relations with Pakistan and to have productive exchange among the representatives of their respective governments. In reply, Gromyko on 24th April, 1948, accepted the invitation and set the ball rolling.
The exhibition included photographs of all events that followed in a chronological order, while some were accompanied with related notes and correspondence. One such photo showed Pakistan’s first Ambassador Plenipotentiary Shuaib Qureshi presenting his credentials to the President of USSR on 31st December, 1949. Another recorded the signing ceremony of the first Pakistan-USSR Bilateral Trade Agreement signed on 27th June, 1956. Another interesting photograph had captured the ceremony held on 5th October, 1961, wherein Mehmood Arshad Hussain presented himself as the second Ambassador of Pakistan to Russia.
Meanwhile, a couple of interesting photographs put up on the occasion, showed President Ayub Khan and Indian premier Lal Bahadur Shastri signing the historic “Tashkent Declaration” on 6th January, 1966 that stated as follows: “…..Resolving the Pakistan-India conflict for restoration of peace in the region and establishing normal relationship between two neighbouring nations…”. It is important to mention here that the Russian government had played a significant role during the whole process and had suggested Tashkent as a neutral ground for the summit meeting between the two South Asian rivals.
Another archival picture taken on 7th June, 1966 had captured the foreign ministers of Russia and Pakistan while signing the agreement for opening of Russian Consulates in Karachi and Dhaka (presently capital of Bangladesh).
At the exhibition, file photos of the parliamentarians’ delegation led by Chowdhary Abdul Jabbar Khan on an official visit to Moscow were also displayed. The warm welcome accorded to them on their visit to Leningrad and the meeting of the Pakistani ladies’ team led by Nusrat Bhutto with their Russian counterparts at a get-together organised by Committee of Soviet Women Chairperson Valentina Tereshkova were also displayed. Nusrat Bhutto had presented a silver decorative plate to V Tereshkova as a memento of the visit.
Many other memorable photographs were also on display at the exhibition. Showing cooperation in civil domain between the two countries, one picture showed the handing over ceremony’ of radiological equipments donated by the Russian government to Pakistan as a friendly offering to the medical centre on 25th June, 1965.
Another such picture had aptly captured the signing of an agreement by Russia on 22nd January, 1972, to provide economic and technological assistance to enable Pakistan to set up Pakistan Steel Mill in Sindh. This particular picture was also accompanied by the text written in preparation for the occasion.
Moreover, another important historical photograph showed the acting Pakistani president Anwarul Haq presenting on behalf of the CMLA Zia-ul-Haq, a letter of felicitations on the 30th Anniversary of a strong and supportive Pakistan-Russia bilateral relations to his counterpart, while another depicted the Russian peoples’ appreciation and support for Abdul Sattar Edhi for his humanitarian undertakings.
Meanwhile, a picture of the former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s recent visit to Moscow to further strengthen bilateral ties between both the countries was also displayed at the exhibition and summed up the eventful 65-year long journey between the two countries.
On the occasion, an intelligently handled documentary was also screened audience. The documentary was crafted out from footage and stills downloaded from the internet and painstakingly put together over lucid commentary.
