By Agha Iqrar Haroon
It was chilling evening of January when a special plan landed at the strip of Tashkent airport of Uzbek SSR of Soviet Union.
A state entourage having several diplomatic bags came out of Pakistan Air Force aircraft. It was presidential entourage of President Muhammad Ayub Khan who was accompanied by civil and military leadership.
Tashkent was wearing white blanket of snow when hot diplomatic activities were going on in and around its airport. Two archrivals were reaching snow capped Tashkent for their heated debates. Indo-Pak delegations concluded their arrivals by the evening of January 3, 1966.
Tashkent was hosting one of the most sensitive and dramatic dialogue between India and Pakistan after conclusion of their war of September 1965. The results of these talks are known as “Tashkent Declaration”. Untimely death of Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent was followed by talks.
Tashkent Declaration was a peace agreement that was signed between India and Pakistan on 10 January 1966 to resolve the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. The USSR was represented by Premier Alexei Kosygin as moderator between Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistani President Muhammad Ayub Khan.
The Tashkent Declaration compelled India and Pakistan to give away the conquered regions of each other and return to the 1949 ceasefire line in Kashmir.
This dialogue and its coverage on state run USSR media helped people of Tashkent and former Uzbek SSR to know existence of Pakistan as an independent country. Before this conference, Uzbeks knew only about India (due to heavy appearance of Indian cinema). For Uzbeks there was no country namely Pakistan but they had blood relations with Lahore and Multan due to their historic and cultural relations with theses cities since Amir Taimur but for Uzbek people these cities were part of Hindustan instead of any newly born country—Pakistan.
I first visited Uzbekistan in 1993 and wherever I introduced myself as Pakistani, aged people asked whether Ayub Khan was still President of Pakistan or not. For old people —time was seized and they remembered that there is one country namely Pakistan and its President is Ayub Khan. However, whenever I introduced my self as resident of Lahore, they instantly said oh you Lahori—-our brother—. It is worth to mentioned that Muhala Punjabian is very much a live place in Tashkent and Lahori is a known word in Samarkand and Bukhara.
Amir Taimur brought thousands of Lahoris to Samarkand for construction work. Samarkandi and Bukharis believe Lahore has blood relation with them. Amir Taimur also took thousands of people from Bukhara and Samarkand to Lahore and Delhi including my ancestors to rule his newly invaded land. These were same people who welcomed Babur—a great grandson of Amir Taimur when he invaded Hindustan after his failure to rule Samarkand peacefully. Babur won and lost Samarkand three times but his love for Samarkand never lost.
Lahore and Tashkent kept without any contact for another 27 years after 1966 Tashkent Declaration due to adverse diplomatic relations of former USSR with Islamabad. However both brotherly cities were reunite and reconnected in 1993 when Pakistan started flights to newly born independent state of Uzbekistan and of course landing strip of first flight was Tashkent.
Since independence, Uzbekistan considers Pakistan as its brother although people to people contact had ebbs and lows due to lack of land and air connectivity. However, love never dies between the two countries. Why not travel to Bukhara this summer to enjoy the pleasure of hospitality of Uzbeks?
