Adil Najam
ATP has speculated before that there may be a US-Pakistan ‘falling out of love’ going on right now. The ATP Photo Quiz from this Saturday (15 July, 2006) provides us a nice opportunity to remember the “good ol’ days” and how the two countries fell in love in the first place.
But coming back to the US-Pakistan relations, the relationship is a long-surviving one, but it has been (and remains) a rocky ride. By far the most public, unconditional and affectionate demonstration of this relationship–honeymoon, if you will–was when Pakistan Prime Minister Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan came on a state visit to the US in May 1950. These pictures above show just how much more elaborate that visit was than anything since; in fact, no one visits the US like this anymore.
Nawabzada Liaquat Ali was received at the airport by US President Harry Truman (pictured), spoke to the US House of Representatives (pictured), was given multiple military parades (pictured), got an honorary degree from Columbia University (pictured), a public parade from the city of New York (pictured), both Nawabzada sahib and begum sahiba visited and spoke at multiple universities, including Raana Liaquat Ali speaking at Wellesley College and the Prime Minister meeting the President of MIT, and much more. Indeed, when he arrived at the airport, the Pakistan Prime Minister was greeted by US President Harry Truman, his wife, their daughter Margaret, and most of the US cabinet.
That was the beginning of a long but stormy friendship that never really became what either side wanted it to be. Aah, how times have changed!
Pictures from the website of the Truman Presidential Museum and Library.
[As it turns out this last ATP Photo Quiz was much more difficult than previous ones though, as you will see, one reader (Naveed) did get both people right and a few others guessed at least one of the two people in the picture. Check out the original ATP Photo Quiz to find who those two were!]
The following link is about Liaquat Ali Khan’s assassination and US Embassy’s secret and classified correspondence about the situatin in Pakistan and neighboring countries. Its really interesting. http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/pakistan/pakintrigue .htm
MSK, yes, the picture on the top-right is the welcome parade in honor of the Pakistan PM. Note that those little specks on the road are the horses leading the parade.
Adil Sahib
Yes I may be wrong on where Liaqat Ali delivered his speech. It was years ago that I read it in the course book. It was English of HSc published by Sindh Text Book Board. The curriculum must’ve changed since 1988-89, therefore I was wondering whether that chapter about Liaqat Ali’s visit to US and his speech are still in Sindh Board’s Intermediate English course or not.
Like I said, your comment on PTV that you had a poster of Liaqat Ali in your room is stuck in my mind for more than 15 years now eventhough I didn’t know who you were until a month ago :) I was so very impressed by that comment many years ago and I guess I still am. To follow in your tradition, I also used to have Mr Jinnah’s poster in my room.
Owais, on Liaquat Ali Khan’s speech… I do not think he visited or spoke at Harvard (I may be wrong)…. he spoke at the University of Kansas and then at Columbia Univeristy (got honorary degrees from both places)…. His speech at Columbia is often cited as his best and a key foreign policy doctrine document for Pakistan– it was titled “Progress and Peace: Pakistan’s Necessities”…. a rather telling title, if you think about it….
Owais, I must confess I am impressed by your memory… this was ages ago…. embarrassing, but true, yes it was me.
some of the details as I recall them… I forget the name of the show, but the host was Laeeq Ahmed; the discussion had succumbed to the usual ‘generation gap’ stuff and someone had just commented that the (then) young were out of touch with their history and heritage and that (I paraphrase from memory here) “if you walked into a university hostel you would see pictures of cricketers and movie stars on the wall, but none of Jinnah or Liaquatâ€