Authorities in both India and Pakistan seem to be taking turns in embarrassing themselves and providing amusement for the general public. It all started when former PAF chief appeared in an advertisement published by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) in India. The ad published on the occasion National Girl Child Day carried photos of Sonia Gandhi, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, WCD Minister Krishna Tirath and Indian cricket heroes Kapil Dev and Virender Sehwag, and of course our very own, former PAF chief, Tanvir Ahmed.

Punjab Police of Pakistan decided to level the score by putting the insignia of Punjab Police of India in a public service advertisement (see below) published in various national newspapers. It is interesting to note here that the insignias do resemble a lot. Both feature “PP” (for Punjab Police) in somewhat similar font style, surrounded by a wreath against blue and red background. The major difference is that the India insignia has three lions on the top while the Pakistani insignia has a star instead. It seems that the composer of the ad searched ‘punjab police emblem’ on Google, and copy-pasted the Indian version without verifying.

One day later, Indian railways published an advertisement of their new Maharajas’ Express which shows Kolkata in the Bay of Bengal and Delhi in Pakistan. These blunders have one thing in common: For all three cases mentioned, the authorities were quick to pin the blame on the advertising agencies involved. Well what’s next? An advertisement by Indian Army recruiting cadets for Pakistan? You never know…