When a US vice president invited a Pakistani camel cart driver to America

Video documents friendship between Lyndon Johnson and Bashir Ahmed Sarban in the '60s

In a nostalgic video shared by the US Consulate General Pakistan on their Facebook page, the sons of a Pakistan camel cart driver recall how former US president Lyndon Johnson invited their father to America.

“Our father was carrying goods on a camel cart when he saw a blockade on the Karsaz road and upon investigation he found out that then US vice president Lyndon Johnson was visiting,” one of Bashir Ahmed Sarban’s son recalls in the video.



But it is no ordinary tale. When Johnson saw Sarban stuck in traffic with his camel cart, he approached him and said he would like to become his friend. “When Lyndon Johnson saw our father with the camel cart, he stopped. He then met our father and shook his hand. Johnson asked our father if he would like to become his friend. My father said yes,” the son continued.

Johnson extended an invite to Sarban to visit the US. As the son recalls how Sarban was coached about American etiquettes by the Pakistani government, the video shifts to a rare clip from 1961 in which Sarban is seen arriving in the US.

Sarban is then seen enthusiastically waving at the US vice president who seems equally excited to receive him. The clip then goes on to show Sarban travelling around New York, Texas and Washington DC as well as the Empire State building along with Lyndon.

The son also narrates that the vice president and Sarban competed in a horse race. “My father won. He termed it as the best moment of his trip.”



The video ends on a humorous note showing another clip in which the interviewer translates a question from the vice president for Sarban, “I understand that he was planning to name his camel, has he come to a decision yet?” asks the interviewer, to which Sarban breaks into a laugh, adding:“It’s only a camel. How can you name it?!”