KARACHI: A Pakistani artist paints a Cessna fixed-wing aircraft with the country’s popular truck art to showcase that the country is more than the sum of its stereotypes.
Pakistani truck art has inspired gallery exhibitions abroad and prompted stores in Western cities to sell miniatures. Such art has become one of Pakistan’s best-known cultural exports in recent years.
The aircraft has Urdu calligraphy, animals and flowers painted on it. Truck artist Haider Ali painted the whole aircraft in a week. Talking to M.M News, he said he used elements from all provinces in the art.
Trained by his father, Haider Ali has been decorating trucks since his childhood and is now one of the most prominent such painters in Pakistan. He hopes to paint an Airbus or Boeing aircraft and an F-16 fighter jet in the future, with the aim of promoting tourism in Pakistan.
Imran Aslam Khan, Director Sky Wings, a flight training organisation said, “We want to show the world that Pakistan is a very diverse country and a land of opportunities. The main reason to paint the aircraft is to create a soft image of our country and to promote our culture.”
