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Аннотация
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Our Honorable Hosts: Professor Natalya Romanova, Deputy Director, Institute of
Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. Professor Vyacheslav Belokrenitsky.
Chairman, Centre for the Study of Near and Middle Eastern Countries, Institute of
Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. The Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,
His Excellency Mr. Shafqat Ali Khan. My fellow Parliamentarians from Pakistan: Senator Anwaar-ul-Haq
Kakar and Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar. Distinguished speakers, scholars, academicians. Ladies
and Gentlemen! It is a pleasure and honor for me to be present here at this International Conference
dedicated to the 75th Anniversary of Pakistan’s independence. Your warm welcome, thoughtfulness
and outstanding hospitality continue to win our heart. I would like to compliment and congratulate
the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences on successfully hosting this
wonderful event and for assembling a galaxy of experts who will be presenting on a wide range of key
topics today, both online and in person.
Ladies and Gentlemen! On this auspicious occasion, I wish to make five points before you,
and in so doing I will be touching upon many but not all of the themes included in the invitation letter
you sent to us a few weeks ago. Ladies and Gentlemen! First and foremost, I would like to express my
admiration for the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences as an important
and world-famous
academic institution. My dear Professors, my dear hosts, I commend you for the
diligent investigation of the cultures, history, languages, literature and policies of Eastern countries
that is carried out here under your auspices as I am myself directly familiar with the works and the
great intellectual command of the scholars involved with this historic research organization. Strong
institutions like this lie at the heart of progressive development and a strong framework of international
cooperation.
Ladies and Gentlemen! Secondly, looking inwards at my country, as part of a pillar of the
state — the legislature — and entrusted with the important subject of Human Rights, I submit to
you that, domestically, there is broad consensus, across the political spectrum, across the multiparty
system, on the rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution, together with the continuity of the
democratic process. Not only that, and not just the political leadership, but the nation as a whole,
is now as conscious as ever about, and staunchly supports the upholding and enforcement, of the
rights that are promised and guaranteed to it. Such as that, human dignity is inviolable, absolutely and
unconditionally. That every person must be protected by law and be treated in accordance with law.
That no action harmful to the life, liberty, body, reputation, property or privacy of any person shall
be taken except in accordance with law. That every person is entitled to a fair trial and due process. more people-to-people contacts. In this context, both Russia and Pakistan must remain mindful that
no third country should be allowed any sway over setting the parameters of our bilateral relationship
and taking it to the next level. Ladies and Gentlemen! Fifthly and lastly, I refer to the ground-breaking
visit to Moscow of President Ayub Khan in April 1965. During the summit meetings then held,
the Soviet leadership comprising Leonid Brezhnev, Aleksei Kosygin, Anastas Mikoyan and Andrei
Gromyko alleged before the President of Pakistan that the Western powers were pursuing a policy
of enslaving the people of Asia, and accused Pakistan of acting as an instrument of this policy. Let
me make it clear at this juncture, in this day and age, the Pakistani nation is acutely conscious of its
place on this planet, and is not ready, is not willing, and is not going to accept enslavement by any
power on this earth. Friendship yes, trade yes, cooperation yes, peaceful coexistence yes, we remain
open to that with every country of the world, but enslavement shall not be acceptable. Going back to
the summit meetings of April 1965, Pakistan’s Information Secretary at the time, Altaf Gauhar, who
was accompanying President Ayub Khan, recollected: ‘Brezhnev put his hand in his right pocket and
pulled it out saying, «See I have kept nothing in my pocket. Everything here is above board.» He said
that Soviet Union had attached «paramount importance» to Ayub’s visit. There was no superficiality
or demagoguery in the talks, which had proceeded on the right lines. The relations between the two
countries could be improved, trade expanded, visits exchanged, and technical know-how provided by
the Soviet Union…Again he said, «Mr. President, you can look into my pocket, I have nothing but
a comb,» and he proceeded to brandish a small brown comb. Ayub responded by showing him his
pocket, saying that he too had nothing there: «I wear my heart on my sleeve…»’ 1
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me tell you, last, but not least, I am mindful that I also represent
before you Dr. Muhammad Iqbal — Allama Iqbal as we call him in Pakistan. He does not belong to
me, he belongs to all of us, and all of you here. And he is someone who did not wear his heart on his
sleeve — he put his heart in his pen, which pen he then put to paper. In so doing, one of the subjects,
one of the matters, which he had great interest in, a great passion for — like an ‘ashiq — was the subject
of Asia, the subject of the East. This is reflected, foremost, in his Persian work from 1923, Payaam-e
Mashriq (Message from the East), and also in another work that I was examining on my way to the
airport at Lahore for this trip to Moscow — his Persian work Mathnavi Pas Che Bayad Kard O Aqwaame-
Sharq
(What is to be Done O Nations of the East), which was published thirteen years later in 1936,
just two years before his death. His love, his passion, for Asia was such that he wanted to see an Asian
renaissance, and he considered his community as a community that would be the custodian of the
nations of the land of Asia. Why Asia? Because Asia is the largest Continent on this earth, stretching
all the way from the Far East on one side, all the way to Europe and Africa on the other. Asia has the
largest population on this earth.
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