India’s moon landing gets front-page coverage in Pak media despite chill in bilateral ties

ISLAMABAD, Aug 24 (PTI): Despite the chill in bilateral ties, Pakistan’s media on Thursday gave
front-page coverage to India’s historic moon landing while a former minister even called it a “great
moment” for India’s space agency, ISRO.
‘India becomes first nation to land near Moon’s south pole’ was the headline in most of the Pakistani
newspapers and websites.
This was India’s second attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon and comes less than a week after
Russia’s Luna-25 mission failed.
The Geo News carried a story by its Web Desk about the landing, saying India’s Chandrayaan-3 has
finally landed on the moon after a 40-day journey starting from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in
Sriharikota and a history of space crashing.
The News International, the Dawn newspaper, the Business Recorder, Dunya News and others
carried stories by various international news agencies.
Fawad Chaudhry, who was Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting in the Imran Khan-led
government, called it a great moment for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
“What a great moment for #ISRO as #Chandrayaan3 lands on the Moon, I can see lots of young
scientists celebrating this moment with Mr Somanath Chairman ISRO; only the Younger generation
with dreams can change the world…good luck,” Chaudhry, a former senior member of Khan’s
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Before the landing, he said, “All eyes on #Chandryaan3 Moon landing 5:40 PM, great day for Indian
Science Community and Space scientists, Congratulations to people of India on this great
achievement.”
Earlier he asked the Pakistani media to livestream Chandrayan’s moon landing.
The bilateral ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India’s warplanes
bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 in
response to the Pulwama terror attack.
The relations further deteriorated after India on August 5, 2019, announced the withdrawal of
special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and the bifurcation of the state into two union territories.