Pakistan–Poland relations refers to bilateral relations between Poland and Pakistan, which date back to the 1940s. After the Independence of Pakistan on August 14, 1947, Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime minister of Pakistan, made the first diplomatic approaches to the People's Republic of Poland and finally, on December 17, 1962, Pakistan became one of the first Muslim countries to establish relations with then-communist government of Poland.
Poland opened an embassy in Karachi in 1962, but moved it to Islamabad Capital Venue in 1965. The Pakistani Government opened its embassy in Warsaw in 1969. Currently, Poland also maintains a cultural Consulate-General in Karachi as well as an honorary Consulate-General in Lahore.
History
Polish ties with Pakistan date back to World War II.
In September 1939 the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin had annexed Eastern Poland in cooperation with Nazi Germany, displacing many Poles, and triggering the outbreak of the Second World War with the Allies, including the British Empire. Once Nazi Germany attacked the USSR in June 1941, the British Empire and USSR established friendly relations and efforts were made to improve conditions for displaced Poles. Between August 24, 1942 and December 31, 1944 Polish refugees were evacuated from the USSR via the "Persian Corridor" in Iran and over thirty thousand of them were housed in refugee camps and were settled in Karachi (then part of British India), which was the nearest major port. Some remained in Karachi, becoming citizens of the newly established State of Pakistan in 1947.
During World War II, the city of Karachi, the chief port in the territory that would become Pakistan, hosted around 30,000 Polish refugees.
Some Polish academics joined the faculty of Karachi University, teaching courses ranging from physical sciences to social sciences. After the independence of Pakistan, Władysław Turowicz, along with thirty Polish officers and technicians, contributed to and assisted in the establishment of the Pakistan Air Force. On 14 August 2006, a memorial was erected in the Pakistan Air Force Museum in Karachi to acknowledge the services of the Polish airmen led by Air Commodore Turowicz.
On the 1st of November 1970 the Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Zygfryd Wolniak was killed at Karachi airport during a welcome ceremonies by a Pakistan International Airlines employee and anti-communist Islamic fundamentalist named Mohammed Feroze Abdullah who was trying to kill the entire delegation but aiming for Polish President Marian Spychalski in particular. Driving a PIA cargo lorry at high speed he mowed down the delegation, narrowly missing his intended target. The other three victims were Pakistani; the deputy director of the Intelligence Bureau, Chaudhri Mohammed Nazir, and two government photographers. His stated motivation to interrogators was his desire to kill socialists, believing that socialists and socialism were against Islam and Muslims. This occurred on the eve of Pakistan's first general elections in which right-wing Islamic parties such as the Jamaati Islami (whose main stronghold at the time was Karachi) were employing highly incendiary rhetoric against socialists as part of their elections campaigns. Feroze was sentenced to death by a special military court on May 10, 1971, but permitted to appeal for clemency.
The relationship between the two countries grew under the administration (1999-2008) of President Musharraf. However, these close relations underwent tension when Pakistani Taliban members captured and brutally murdered a Polish engineer, Piotr Stanczak, in September 2008. He was beheaded by militants in February after talks with the government for the release of captured Taliban members failed. Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency launched an inquiry into the crime. The FIA arrested former parliamentarian Maulana Abdul Aziz along with other perpetrators. Aziz and Attaullah, another suspect in the engineer's murder, was brought to Anti-Terrorism Court II in an armored personnel carrier under the protection of Islamabad and Attock police. The judge granted remand to the police of the former member of the National Assembly, who was elected on the ticket of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in 2002. The Bosal police also obtained two days’ physical remand of Attaullah.