Pakistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, gave a warm welcome to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, upon his arrival in Islamabad for a two-day visit.
добро пожаловать в пакистан FM #SergeyLavrov. Pakistan and Russia share a multi faceted relationship and we welcome FM Lavrov’s visit in line w/ our mutual commitment to further strengthen our bilateral ties, deepening our growing bonds of cooperation & collaboration.
🇵🇰 🤝 🇷🇺 pic.twitter.com/6sAazwuRIJ— Shah Mahmood Qureshi (@SMQureshiPTI) April 6, 2021
Besides Minister Qureshi, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Russia, Shafqat Ali Khan, and other officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs attended the reception.
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Apart from the standard protocols of maintaining formal relationships and revising foreign interests on various fronts, Minister Qureshi sparked outrage among netizens, who seemed to disapprove of how his Russian counterpart had been received upon his arrival.
روسی وزیر خارجہ نے اپنی چھتری خود پکڑی ہوئی اور شاہ صاحب کی چھتری پکڑنے کے لیے بندہ نامزد ہے#RussiaPakistan pic.twitter.com/LlhpRA4Amb
— Hamadullah Awan (@Awan_hamadullah) April 6, 2021
With users flocking on Twitter as the scenes went viral, netizens began their quest to determine what had irked them the most.
Scenes of Russian Foreign Minister's visit to Pakistan, what did you find interesting in these scenes?@ForeignOfficePk @SMQureshiPTI pic.twitter.com/XNdg0HCWDi
— Abdul Hameed Lone (@HameedAPHC) April 6, 2021
While such instances are typically disregarded as unintended cameos on most occasions, social media users pointed out Minister Qureshi’s ‘imperial approach’ as he was accompanied by an umbrella bearer while Minister Lavrov had held his own umbrella.
These are undoubtedly tough times, and nobody likes to see, or even hear of a person flaunting their privileges even if it is unintended.
https://twitter.com/BilalTawakkal/status/1379438753815662596
If the representatives of powerful countries are able to ‘hold their own’ at events as big as this one, netizens argued “why can’t the Pakistani FM do the exact same thing?”
اس تصویر کو دیکھ کر واقعی بڑا افسوس ہوا ۔ ہم سے بہت زیادہ ترقی یافتہ ملک کے وزیر خارجہ کو اپنی چھتری اٹھاتے ہوئے شرم محسوس نہیں ہو رہی مگر پاکستان کے وزیر خارجہ اپنی چھتری اٹھاتے ہوئے عار محسوس کر رہے ہیں ☔۔ #RussiaPakistan pic.twitter.com/EcnjvoDii8
— NANHA-ANCHOR (@NanhaAnchor) April 6, 2021
While Minister Qureshi had played his part to maintain Pakistan’s foreign relations as intended, a little display of humility by him might have done him well.
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Did we miss anything? Hit the comments section and let us know what you think.
جو لوگ اپنی چھتری نہیں اٹھا سکتے
وہ ملک کا بوچھ کیا خاک اٹھائیں گے؟
logic 3000
It’s good that people are pointing this out. But on the other hand, we should not judge FM on this small thing. The way I look at it: the umbrella guy might lose his job because of this pressure. Its possible that he is a care taker of FM and its part of his job.
When you will ask this question from the same ppl who are judging this situation: “Should FM fire his servant? His servant has 4 kids.” then our jazbaati awaam will say No don’t fire him. Irony.
totally corrupt government is PTI government
Nope PPP & PMNL Are