By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: For half a century, the French tricolour flew over a consulate that Pakistanis in this sprawling port city had come to think of as a fixture, a quiet outpost of Paris on the edge of the Arabian Sea. This week, that chapter closed.
The Consulate General of France in Karachi, opened in 1976, is shutting its doors permanently, French officials said on Tuesday at a farewell gathering that doubled as a goodbye to two of the country’s most visible diplomats in Pakistan.
Nicolas Galey, the outgoing French ambassador to Pakistan, delivered the news himself at an event organised by the Board of Management of the Quaid-i-Azam House Museum, working in partnership with the Karachi Council of Foreign Relations. The timing carried its own symmetry: Galey’s own five-year posting in Pakistan is ending just as Alexis Chahtahtinsky, the French consul general in Karachi, prepares to leave the country for good.
“Someone will replace me in Islamabad, but here in Karachi, the French Consulate, which opened in 1976, is closing down after 50 years of service,” Galey told the gathering.
The ambassador did not hide his sentimentality about the moment. He described watching Karachi transform across his many visits over the years — improving, he said, in ways that were plain to see — and praised Chahtahtinsky for his stewardship of the consulate during his tenure. Even as the physical mission closes, Galey said, France’s presence in the city will not disappear entirely. The Alliance Française will take on a larger role as what he called France’s “flagship” institution in Karachi, and the Pakistan France Business Alliance will continue its work promoting commercial ties between the two countries.
Galey also used the occasion to praise Pakistan’s diplomatic conduct amid regional turmoil, crediting the country for helping secure what he described as a ceasefire connected to the conflict in the Gulf. Pakistan, he said, has established itself as an influential actor navigating difficult circumstances.
For Chahtahtinsky, the farewell marked the end of a relationship with Pakistan that stretches back more than four decades — long before his posting as consul general began. He told the gathering he will depart Karachi and Pakistan on September 1, returning to France with what he called great memories of the city.
His connection to the country, he explained, began in 1983, when he visited as a student — a freedom, he noted dryly, that diplomats rarely enjoy once their careers begin. During that early trip, he said, he fell for Pakistan’s Northern Areas, a region he described with evident fondness even decades later.
His most recent stint in Karachi, as consul general, lasted four years. He called the city Pakistan’s first capital and still its economic engine, noting its standing as the country’s largest port and, in his words, its gateway to the outside world. It is, he said, a place equally suited to business and to a rich social life — one that has earned a permanent place in his affections.
Chahtahtinsky also reflected on how perceptions of Pakistan have shifted during his time there. He recalled a period when the country’s reputation for crime and terrorism kept embassy staff wary of even visiting. That began to change, he said, after February 28, when a major conflict erupted in the Gulf and Pakistan’s mediation efforts drew international attention and gratitude. The Pakistan he is leaving, he said, is a markedly different one — a country that has repositioned itself from a source of regional concern to a contributor toward regional solutions.
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