‘Emerging Pakistan’ drive launched on London buses

LONDON: A British Pakistani businessman has launched 150 iconic red double-decker buses carrying the slogan of “Emerging Pakistan” with pictures of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, media reports said.

The bus campaign started on Wednesday and will go on for a month. It’s estimated that tens of thousands of people around a vast network of London will get to see these buses carrying the Pakistani flag, “Emerging Pakistan” slogan and pictures of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, Geo News reported.

The buses will be running on London’s 43 busiest routes, covering the entire length and breadth of the city, from early morning till midnight in both directions, it said.

The businessman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “This ultimate Pakistan branding campaign is running under the banner of ‘Emerging Pakistan’ and will continue for four weeks during which tens of thousands of people will get the chance to know about Pakistan through the iconic London buses daily. We believe that there will be millions who will have seen these buses by the time the campaign ends.”

Leading London advertising agencies estimated this type of campaign would cost around £100,000 to sponsor.

Thebusinessmansaidhewouldpreferanonymity because he wanted the highlight to be on Pakistan and not him as an individual.

“In these divisive times I wanted to pay tribute to Pakistan and remind everyone that the brand ‘Emerging Pakistan’ was launched by the 2013-2018 Pml-ngovernmentwhenpakistan’sgdpgrowthrate was touching 6 per cent and Pakistan was officially ranked in the Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Indices,” said the businessman, the report said.

The businessman believes that Shehbaz Sharif is a “tremendous leader and the meteoric development of Punjab” was a “testament” to his ability.

Meanwhile,thepakistangovernmentannounced on Thursday that an inquiry commission would be set up to look into the foreign conspiracy to topple the Imran Khan government alleged by former prime minister Imran Khan.

However, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) instantly rejected the proposal and said that a judicial commission should be formed instead of an inquiry forum.

Information Minister Maryyium Aurangzeb announced at a presser that the inquiry commission would be a non-partisan body and would be headedbyanindependentperson.theforumwould bring out the facts for the general public, she said.

She said that there was no foreign conspiracy that resulted in the ouster of the Imran Khan government. “The movement launched by Khan is just meant to save Gogi [Farah, friend of his wife Bushra Begum].”