A few months ago, Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan in Moscow sent me a video of a Pakistani company, Allied Fireworks International, that had won the foremost global fireworks display competition in Rostec, Moscow, on August, 14, 2022. My mind went back to early October 1993 when I arrived with my family in Ashgabat, the snow-clad capital of Turkmenistan, as our first Ambassador. Turkmenistan’s second Independence Day was just a few weeks away on 27 October.
It was a frontier situation in this country, newly independent from the USSR. Qazi Khalilullah, Deputy Head of Mission, sent from Moscow to help establish the Embassy, obtained accommodation for the office and us in the friendly Nagina Guest House. President Saparmurat Niyazov graciously received me within a few days of my arrival so that I could, having presented my credentials, become operational.
An officer of initiative, Qazi Sahib had obtained our Foreign Office’s sanction of Rs.13 lacs for a fireworks company from Lahore to put on a display in Ashgabat, as Pakistan’s gift on Independence Day. The sanctioned amount covered a spectacular exhibition and a team of 12; but not the logistics for transporting them and ten tons of material. My first task was to tackle this hurdle.
During my five years’ stay, I developed a good equation with Foreign Minister Halykberdy Atayew and his deputy, and then successor, Boris Shikmuradov; in which time my main objective was to initiate, first, a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, across Afghanistan, to Pakistan. Gas from Turkmenistan’s plentiful reserves were constrained by having to export solely through the Central Asian Gazprom pipeline monopoly system to the Russia Urals at a low price, swapped by Russia for its own gas closer to the West for sale at a higher price to Ukraine and Europe. The plan also foresaw building a parallel oil pipeline fed by surplus oil from other Central Asian countries by using available unused pipelines. The gas was mainly for Pakistan and partly for Afghanistan. The oil would go to Pakistan: some for our own refineries, and a major part to the coast to export abroad opening a new route bypassing the strategic though vulnerable Straits of Hormuz. These projects would have helped stabilise Afghanistan with the various factions realising that more was to be made through transit fees and construction jobs than by war.
Before arrival, in a trilateral meeting in Islamabad, I had negotiated an MOU with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan for a five-dimensional corridor through Afghanistan for gas and oil pipelines, supply of electricity, and in time a railroad link.
Due to President Niyazov’s appreciation of these opportunities for both countries, Pakistan was regarded as a pioneering strategic partner. Turkmenistan became the first country in Central Asia to send army and air force cadets to Pakistan for training. That these projects remain as yet uncompleted, though there is some progress on the TAPI gas pipeline, is due not only both to the continuing turmoil in Afghanistan but equally to the deplorable lack of focus by Pakistan over a period of 27 years.
I discussed the logistics issue concerning the fireworks display with the Foreign Minister, requesting that one of their many Ilyushin-76 transport planes, with its 50 tons’ capacity, double that of a C-130, be sent to Lahore to pick up our team. This was readily approved. It was more difficult to convince Turkmen Head of Civil Aviation that international regulations permitted the safe transport under safeguards of a large quantity of highly combustible fireworks. I referred to available regulations, adding that ammunition for their armed forces had been routinely flown into Turkmenistan.
Approval was granted and a week before Independence Day, an IL-76 was airborne to Lahore along DCM Qazi Sahib and Turkmen Deputy Foreign Minister Saparov aboard. We had briefed the fireworks team to ensure impeccable packaging of the fireworks so that the cargo gave no cause of concern. On arrival back in Ashgabat the team was well lodged and quickly found a site for the display, a large park, the oldest in the city, in the middle of town. The display would be launched from there, with the audience at an appropriate distance, while in the sky the display would be visible all over the capital–the first fireworks display of its kind there.
The exhibition was timed to coincide with a celebratory banquet given by the President for ministers, officials, and the diplomatic corps. While graceful ballet dancers performed to the strains of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, a spectacular fireworks display lit the sky to celebrate Turkmenistan’s independence day. Around the park and all over town, eyes were raised to take in and appreciate the continuing fireworks in bursts of various colors and combinations. An enduring mark of the Pakistani display was that Turkmen TV News adopted as its logo a video clip of the fireworks for its daily news bulletin, and this remained so during my five years’ eventful stay in Turkmenistan.
Turkmen Airlines suggested a Tupolev 114 passenger plane to ferry the team back to Lahore. I again requested an IL-76 for which fuel for the return trip would be provided. I spoke to Nadeem Sahib of Unique Movers, selected by the Foreign Office, which had originally planned to transport the equipment and furniture for the Chancery and Residence by ship to Iran then by rail and road to Ashgabat. He agreed to post-haste crate everything, truck it to Lahore Airport in 48 hours, and to pay for refueling the cargo plane which then brought it all back, permitting the equipping of the Embassy right away rather than waiting for another three months.
After reviewing the report of the Moscow competition, I obtained the company’s coordinates from its website address and spoke to its founder and CEO Mr. Shahid Mehmood. I was delighted to find it was indeed he that led the team to Ashgabat. He had been the star pupil of his uncle Mr. Abdul Rasheed Butt’s fireworks company originally established in Dera Babak Nanak in Gurdaspur. He had branched out in 1994 and now headed the foremost such company in Pakistan and amongst the best in the world.
I invited him over to reminisce, and to learn what had transpired since. He had a deep historical and technical knowledge of fireworks. I learnt that his company uses the safest and most scientific methods of electronic controls, designed and operated by his son Muhab Ali. These days, companies do not have to take fireworks with them for international events that they are selected for. They merely inform the organisers which pyrotechnics they require, and where to buy them. A number of countries produce fireworks; including the UK, Germany, France, the USA, Spain, and Mexico, but those of the best quality are from Japan, while those of the best quality for the best price are from China. Pyrotechnic music to accompany fireworks displays requires equal chorographic skill. Shahid Sahib works on that aspect with his son, using a mixture of classical music, modern melodies, and always some Pakistani music.
The need to prioritise economic diplomacy is much discussed these days, as if this were a recent revelation. Historically trade and diplomacy are intertwined with interstate relations. This was brought home to me in particular during a visit with Foreign Minister Sahibzada Yaqub Khan to Bahrain in 1982, at the Manama National Museum. Bahrain was the fabled isle of Dilmun with which the Indus Valley civilisation traded, and through Bahrain even further with Mesopotamia. We viewed the Bahraini circular seals incorporating symbols both from the square Indus Valley seals and the Mesopotamian cylindrical seals.
For economic diplomacy, implementation is the key. Embassies abroad should seize every opportunity to find export opportunities abroad for our workforce, commodities, products, and services. We have a wealth of professional excellence and technical expertise in many fields including in IT, education, precision engineering, and other non-traditional fields. Fireworks display is one such niche which our diplomats in the GCC, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Australia, and further afield, should promote. All prospective exporters need to provide quality, competitiveness, and effective marketing. Allied Fireworks International for its part has a good website, has produced an excellent brochure, and is finalising a DVD. Material such as this can be used by our embassies to appropriately introduce and project our companies and their products. However whereas the embassies can facilitate awareness and contacts, it is the responsibility of all companies concerned to utilise such openings to clinch contracts.