Zubair Qureshi
After the much-touted International Gandhara symposium which took place earlier this year in July in Islamabad, a question was frequently asked: “What next?”
One simply wished the organizers and the relevant authorities to understand the simple fact that symposiums and conferences mean little unless there was a follow-up and a clear action plan.
Former Adviser to the Government of Pakistan, Imran Shauket who is known for his passion to promote Pakistan’s rich ancient Gandhara culture in Pakistan and abroad and has achieved considerable success in this regard regretted that unfortunately, since the symposium, not much had taken place. Pakistan, he said, has huge potential in faith-based tourism but due to lack of proper strategy and action plan we have failed to market this important sector. Concrete steps and an action plan are required to showcase Pakistan’s Buddhist treasure, he said.
Imran has been working in this particular sector individually for the last seven years and he does so by engaging the government functionaries as well as the foreign spiritual leaders and dignitaries to promote and showcase Pakistan’s soft image abroad.
In the past, Imran had been working to promote the Gandhara-based Pakistan-Thailand and Pakistan-Malaysia partnership with his childhood friend, Miangul Adnan Aurangzeb (late) of Swat. In this endeavor, he engaged the Foreign Office and Pakistan’s embassies in these two countries, as well as the universities and renowned monks.
In his efforts he seems to have found another partner in a very notable academic Buddhist leader, a highly acclaimed academic-monk from Cambodia, Most Venerable Yon Seng Yeath.
The monk is a Harvard educated Ph.D. scholar and happens to be the Rector of the historic Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Pakistan’s Ambassador in Cambodia, Mr Babar Thaheem and Imran had been in touch for the past one year to take the Gandhara promotion to the next level in Cambodia. With the introduction of the MV Yeath, who was referred by Ambassador Thaheem and sponsored to attend the symposium by his offices, the partnership’s foundation was established.
Imran visited Cambodia on Sept 10- 12, 2023 on the invitation of the monk and the Pak ambassador in Cambodia. Ambassador Thaheem and Imran both visited two of the premier universities in Phnom Penh, met with faculty and students and gave presentations on Gandhara and Pakistan.
According to Imran, he was surprised to see the students as well as the faculty knew little about Pakistan. No one seemed to have any idea. So much so, one of the senior participants thought Pakistan had a population of 60 million people. When informed that Pakistan was a nation of around 240 million, the audience was shocked.
Imran said his visit turned into an exciting opportunity to discuss setting up a “Gandhara Center” at the two universities, collaboration between Cambodian and Pakistani universities, visits by monks and delegates in the near future and many other initiatives.
A timeline of activities is being laid out for the next 12 months to take the Pakistan-Cambodia relationship to new heights, he said. In this regard, Imran has also found a very capable partner in the recently appointed Additional Secretary of Asia-Pacific at the Foreign Office, Mr. Imran Siddiqui.
