Public Diplomacy as a Global Phenomenon: Pakistan

Gift of ‘Ishq’ in the offing - QUDSSIA AKHLAQUE, nation.com.pk

ISLAMABAD - Behind the veil of hectic diplomatic engagements and negotiations, many officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) are quietly engaged in creative endeavours to project and promote the less talked about positive aspects of Pakistan.

MOFA has stepped in to proactively pursue public diplomacy initiatives to highlight the positive aspects of Pakistan, the diversity of its land and people and the richness of its heritage, art and culture. Currently in the works is a project on mystic poetry and music, to be packaged in the form of a gift box containing audio CDs accompanied with a booklet on Sufism and mystic poetry titled ‘Ishq: our Sufi tradition’ with English translation.

In these trying divisive times Ishq will echo the crux and spirit of Sufism - love, compassion, kindness and tolerance. The embedded message is: Pakistan is overwhelmingly a peace-loving nation notwithstanding the distortions created by outside interferences and attempts to destabilise the country.

The four CD set will feature Kalam (poetry and prose) of the most revered and celebrated Sufi saints and poets including Jalaluddin Rumi, Shams Tabraiz, Bulleh Shah, Sultan Bahu, Hafiz, Khawaja Ghulam Farid, Shah Hussain, Mehr Ali Shah, Sachal Sarmast and Allama Iqbal. The renditions of the Sufi Kalam will be by Pakistan’s leading legends and Sufi singers like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ustaad Munshi Razziudin Ahmed, Pathany Khan, Muhammad Juman, Hamid Ali Baila, Saeen Zahoor, Abida Parveen, Zahida Parveen, Farid Ayaz, Abu Mohammad, Rahat Fateh Ali and Sanam Marvi.

Ishq, conceived and compiled by Additional Secretary (Americas) Ms Naghmana Hashmi, is expected to be ready for distribution by next month. Ms Hashmi has earlier compiled ‘Dilkash Pakistan’ (Magnificant Pakistan) to mark Pakistan-China all-weather friendship while posted in China in 2006. The coffee table book, in three languages – Urdu, Chinese and English, is a splendid pictorial with Allama Iqbal’s poetry. The current project is part of wide-ranging initiatives taken by MOFA under the recently launched public diplomacy division.

Mindful of the fact that Pakistan is confronted with a generally biased and hostile international media that tend to reinforce negative stereotypes about the country, MOFA established a public diplomacy division last year. Its key objective is to effectively promote a positive image of the country at various levels. Currently, the division is headed by Additional Secretary Mr Aslam Khan.

The initiative taken by Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani last year, has had active backing of senior officials at MOFA, who credit the foreign secretary for taking keen interest and providing necessary official patronage required for organised and well-coordinated efforts towards public diplomacy. According to MOFA, the objective of a Public Diplomacy Division is to create opportunity for people to people contacts and thus create better understanding of Pakistan and its people.

Most recently, Foreign Office Spokesperson and Additional Secretary UN, Mr Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Additional Secretaries Ms Naghmana Hashmi and Ms Tasnim Aslam and DG South Asia Division Ms Riffat Masood have been particularly active on this front. They have all been contributing in organising various events including sports tournaments, musical evenings and compiling coffee-table books on Pakistan.

The efforts are also supported by the Pakistan Foreign Office Women Association (PFOWA) headed by the foreign secretary’s wife Mrs Shaista Jilani. PFOWA organises events such as musical evenings and charity bazaars that bring together representatives of diplomatic community here.

Three separate genres of music were played at the musical evenings organised by MOFA since last month featuring mesmerising qawwals Farid Ayaz and Abu Muhammad, folk singer Saeen Zahoor and classical singer Ustad Shaukat Manzur.

To promote Pakistan’s cultural heritage, a number of coffee-table books have also been published by MOFA and conceived and compiled by its officials for dissemination at missions abroad and to present to foreign guests.

One of the finest coffee-table book on Pakistan was conceived by Former Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan and compiled by Additional Secretary Ms Seema Naqvi in 2008. Titled ‘Pakistan’ it is essentially a pictorial portrayal of the country’s diversity with brief accounts of its history, topography, people and their cultural traditions. Mr Aizaz Ahmad while posted in Holland compiled a coffee-table book titled ‘Pakistan through Dutch Eyes’, Mr Najm us Saqib, currently DG ECO/CAR, also has to his name a couple of books on poetry. Pakistan’s recently retired ambassador to Indonesia, Mr Sanaullah, has also written a book on poetry.

Pakistani documentaries, movies, plays and Sufi music have been introduced and promoted by diplomats in numerous world capitals. As part of public diplomacy, MOFA also encourages Pakistani artists to perform at its missions abroad and facilitates them in obtaining visas for those destinations. In the broader sense most of Pakistan’s active missions abroad are engaged in public diplomacy building Pakistan’s image and raising its profile on multiple scores.