BISHKEK (The Thursday Times) — Lahore and the Kyrgyz city of Osh have become sister cities, under an agreement signed as part of a broader package of accords following talks between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov in Bishkek.
Shehbaz welcomed the agreement personally, describing Lahore and Osh as “two ancient cities” whose landmarks reflect a shared depth of history and culture. He drew a direct comparison between the two: Osh’s Sulaiman-Too, a UNESCO-listed sacred mountain at the city’s heart, and Lahore’s own Fort and Badshahi Mosque. “Their iconic landmarks… reflected their rich history and cultural heritage,” he said.
The sister-city agreements typically pave the way for municipal exchanges, cultural delegations, and future cooperation on tourism, education, or trade, rather than carrying binding obligations of their own. It is also not Lahore’s first such relationship: the city has held a sister-city partnership with Chicago since 2007, aimed at strengthening ties between the two cities’ business, healthcare, and education sectors and the Pakistani diaspora community there. Osh, for its part, has its own network of sister cities, including a decades-old tie with Istanbul dating to 1997 and a newly announced partnership with Ganja, Azerbaijan.
The agreement was one of 16 bilateral accords signed during Shehbaz’s visit, alongside a joint declaration on strengthening comprehensive cooperation. Speaking at a joint press conference afterward, Shehbaz also thanked Zhaparov for Kyrgyzstan’s progress completing its segment of the CASA-1000 power transmission project and reaffirmed both countries’ resolve to cooperate against terrorism and extremism.
