ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Thursday emphasized the need to reinforce historical cultural linkages with Uzbekistan, as both countries shared immense commonalities and traditions.
Talking to Ambassador of Uzbekistan Aybek Arif Usmanov, he emphasised that the strengthening of cultural ties between Pakistan and Uzbekistan would help promoting people to people contacts.
The minister underscored that both countries had an inspired history of Sufism which created a great bond between the people of two states on the notion of spirituality.
He said that Sufism had travelled from Central Asian States to South Asian Region carrying its lofty ideals of piety, peace, harmony and co-existence.
Fawad said that Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony could play a vital role in further cementing this historical connection.
Both the sides agreed to take forward the proposal to produce joint movies on the lives of Mughal Emperor Zaheer ud Din Babar and legendry poet Asad Ullah Ghalib. The proposal in this connection came up during the visit of Prime Minister of Pakistan to Uzbekistan where it was agreed that an expert group would be constituted with the view to execute the project, the minister said.
Fawad said that Pakistan would provide its dramas to Uzbekistan which could be dubbed in Uzbek language for telecast in Uzbekistan.
He also proposed that Pakistan Television could telecast documentaries of historical Uzbek sites of Samarkand and Bukhara. He informed the ambassador that a private Pakistani TV channel had already provided two dramas “Chupkay Chupkay and Humsafar” to Uzbekistan.
The minister said that the dream of building a rail track between Karachi and Tashkent and the start of truck service from Pakistan to Central Asia could only be materialized with peace and stability in the region.
Speaking on the occasion, the Uzbek ambassador commended Pakistan’s role in strengthening regional stability and evacuating the foreign nationals from Afghanistan. He also asked the minister to share historical pictures from the archives of Press Information Department for their onward use in his country.
The meeting was attended by the senior officials of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.