Pakistan through the eyes of an Arab

[dadeechi]

Pakistan through the eyes of an Arab

By Wafa ZaidanPublished: December 28, 2015
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The writer is a Pakistani journalist of Syrian origin
Some weeks ago I arrived in Islamabad with the aim of sitting for the B2 French exam in Lahore. I ended up extending my stay in the country by a week. It was difficult to move with my family to Qatar sometime back after having lived in Pakistan for most of my life, yet it took me no time to feel the warmth of being back home once I took my first step off of the aircraft.

It was a stroke of good luck that my stay here was extended because I got the opportunity to vote in the local government (LG) elections in Islamabad that were held for the first time. It felt like Eid in that people seemed to be in a festive mood on election day, the roadsides were dotted by posters of candidates and banners of political parties with the odd miniature tiger and cricket bat also apparent.

Some voters wore head-bands or topis of the parties they supported. Others reflected their party of choice by the colour of their dress. Stalls of each of the independent candidates and the participating political parties dotted the area around the polling stations and everyone was dressed up as if it was a national festival. Perhaps it was. My phone didn’t stop beeping the night before polling day, with messages and calls from parties campaigning for their respective candidates.

On polling day itself, one could see that those who had voted for the same party exchanged looks of satisfaction and pride at the polling stations, even though they were meeting each other for the first time. And the fact that most people showing up to vote were young, drew wide smiles on the faces of everyone present at the polling station. It did not matter who won. What was significant was the patriotic spirit that was on display in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

I might need hours to explain all the emotions and describe these happenings to my fellow Arabs, because in our region, a majority of the countries never hold free and fair elections. People in these countries do not enjoy the freedom of a multiparty system and do not understand what it means to vote and participate in elections — be it a country where a self-proclaimed secular president rules or a self-described religious one. In the Arab world, we are used to seeing results like the 98 per cent vote for Syria’s Hafez al-Assad, or his heir’s recent 88.7 per cent vote, not to mention the 81 per cent votes of Algeria’s Bouteflika and, of course the 96.91 sky-scraper-high-percentage of Egypt’s Al Sisi. We don’t vote in the Arab world, we just wait for fixed results to be announced and fake festivals to celebrate victories achieved in uncontested elections.



What my fellow Arabs might find surprising is that it was the police that guided me to the polling station that I was supposed to vote in. The kindness they showed is worth mentioning. It is difficult to absorb the idea of a helpful police as an Arab. This is not to say that all Arab or Middle Eastern countries suffer from a lack of a public-friendly police. There are some countries, like Jordan, Tunisia and majority of the Gulf countries where the police do serve their people.

I consider myself lucky to be a Pakistani of Arab origin and that I had the right to vote in the LG polls and therefore had a say in the political process. The fact that my opinion, my vote and my choice mattered in my country gives me confidence and boosts my patriotism. I mourn the situation in the Arab world today, where at least 10 countries are in turmoil. The situation in Pakistan may not be ideal, but the country definitely has the makings of a pluralistic political system.

Pakistan through the eyes of an Arab - The Express Tribune
@MaarKhoor @django @Ammara Chaudhry @WAJsal @waz

Couple of questions

1) Why is Kashmir not shown as an ethnic group?

2) What is the % of ARAB and Turkic population and why are they missing?

 

[Plenipotentiary]

the moment i saw her orthodox hijab i knew she is yet another reactionary and nato apologist, and true enough down the page was...

she is another nato propangadist and disinfo agent like the yemeni burqa and one of obomba's 2011 nobel "peace" prize girls, tawakkol karman, who had called the jailed ikhwaani leader, morsi, as "the mandela of egypt".

one may consult what ms wafa zaidan writes on twitter and on "express tribune" itself to know of her "credentials".



see the underlined statement??

she would be okay, in fact most comfortable, if the mma ( muttahida majlis-e-amal - a mullah party ) won elections and became the government of pakistan, because it would be through "the democratic route".

it would be good for pakistan if she is deported to saudia or usa.



the british-origin system of multiple parties and five year elections, which is called "representative democracy", is not true democracy at all.

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yeh lo !! iss thread me bhi india vs pakistan.

for your analytical skills my firiend. you sensed it.

@DESERT FIGHTER you, my brother, deserve a positive rating for your signature

 

[Zibago]

Couple of questions

1) Why is Kashmir not shown as an ethnic group?

2) What is the % of ARAB and Turkic population and why are they missing?


View attachment 283483

They included a lot of ethnic groups in Punjabis

 

[dadeechi]

They included a lot of ethnic groups in Punjabis

Do you have any link with better break up?

 

[ArsalanKhan21]

See, this is the issue, if you keep comparing Pakistan with f**ked up Arab nations, we will get no where.

Pakistan has actually fallen back from the scale of developing nations as many poorer nation and undeveloped eclipsed us since 1947. South Korea was poorer than Pakistan and now its a developed country. You can compare us with South Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese who sped pass in development since independence.

^^And why is she calling herself an Arab when she was born and lived most of her life in Pakistan before leaving for Qatar? Its not like she would have Qatari citizenship or something.

I think her father is Syrian. The Pakistanis born and raised in Canada also calls them as Pakistani-Canadians.

So, she enjoyed the freedom in Pakistan so much that whole family moved to Qatar.

Like us that we moved to Canada.

But some of you Pakistanis consider it a great honor and privilege to be seen as Arab descendants!! Why so?

Some are since the Arab ruled the Indus Valley for more than 400 years. It is also because of influence Hindu Caste system where the class and ancestry gave you higher status. The 90% Filipinos will tell you that they half Spanish since colonial Spanish official intermarried locally.

 

[Moonlight]

So it's not basically, "Pakistan Through the Eyes of an Arab", but Pakistan through the eyes of a Pakistani-Arab. Plus, Pakistan is democracy based government and Arab countries for the most part are monarchy based. No comparison.

 

[livingdead]

Is it not quite obvious... pakistan has democracy and most arab nations are ruled by dictators/kings.
Some arabs long for democracy and some pakistanis long for dictatorship.... grass is always greener..

 

[Khafee]

Is it not quite obvious... pakistan has democracy and most arab nations are ruled by dictators/kings.
Some arabs long for democracy and some pakistanis long for dictatorship.... grass is always greener..

The greener the grass, the tastier the steak

 

[Jf Thunder]

the moment i saw her orthodox hijab i knew she is yet another reactionary and nato apologist, and true enough down the page was...

what exactly is an orthodox Hijab?

 

[terry5]

Revoke her visa ,we dont want no Arabs nothing but trouble for us

what exactly is an orthodox Hijab?

 

[Jf Thunder]

Revoke her visa ,we dont want no Arabs nothing but trouble for us

that is a Niqab, the writer is wearing a Hijab...........

 

[terry5]

that is a Niqab, the writer is wearing a Hijab...........

I know but that Gadaffi worshippers gone in the head
he doesnt know if heaven exists but can still pass fatwa if a person is a muslim or not .
orthodox hijaab LOL

 

[-blitzkrieg-]

the moment i saw her orthodox hijab i knew she is yet another reactionary and nato apologist, and true enough down the page was...

she is another nato propangadist and disinfo agent like the yemeni burqa and one of obomba's 2011 nobel "peace" prize girls, tawakkol karman, who had called the jailed ikhwaani leader, morsi, as "the mandela of egypt".

one may consult what ms wafa zaidan writes on twitter and on "express tribune" itself to know of her "credentials".

edit : why doesn't she speak of the cruel and anti-democratic monarchies in saudia, qatar and brunei??



see the underlined statement??

she would be okay, in fact most comfortable, if the mma ( muttahida majlis-e-amal - a mullah party ) won elections and became the government of pakistan, because it would be through "the democratic route".

it would be good for pakistan if she is deported to saudia or usa.



the british-origin system of multiple parties and five year elections, which is called "representative democracy", is not true democracy at all.

--------

yeh lo !! iss thread me bhi india vs pakistan.

judging people on what they are wearing.??? makes you no different to the scum we see in west ie muslims getting abused over attire. who are you to choose bashar al asad for them?if she doesnt like your heores good for her , why dont you have aristocracy for yourself before you wish it to others.. And how conveniently u judged him to be a nato apologist??
you need to work this . Morsi was only close to Turkey not NATO. Of course you have no idea about Turkish politics to throw a comment here.Morsi was unacceptable to Saudia and acceptable to Iran/Russia. You are just blabbering over your sectarian differences which i have already noted in one previous thread.
btw i dont really agree with her article on things like "free and fair election' but your reply is straight out provocative.

 

[ashley.1965]

Wow - so much raw hatred in this thread. People in Pakistan, it seems, have been successfully indoctrinated to hate Arabs as enemies over the last couple of years or so as a result of our sold-out liberal media.

See, this is the issue, if you keep comparing Pakistan with f**ked up Arab nations, we will get no where.

Please read the article carefully again, especially the fifth and sixth paragraphs. There is virtually nothing in there that compares Pakistan to "****** up Arab nations" (to use your colorful language). The article is more of a lament at the lack of a popular elections culture in Arab countries.

The real problem with the article is not some imagined Pakistan vs. The Arab World comparison, but the fact that this was published in Pakistan's premier US-funded Zionist mouthpiece, The Express Tribune. The article explicitly promotes, whether intentionally or not on the part of the author being debatable, the imported Western concepts of pluralism and democracy as some kind of utopian polity that should be followed by Arabs.

^^And why is she calling herself an Arab when she was born and lived most of her life in Pakistan before leaving for Qatar? Its not like she would have Qatari citizenship or something.

Arabs are an ethnicity, not a nationality. Her Pakistani citizenship is a choice - just like it would be for any citizen of any country in the world. Her ethnicity is not. Please don't confuse the two.

So, she enjoyed the freedom in Pakistan so much that whole family moved to Qatar.

Her father is a journalist who opposes the Assad family's rule; he left Syria many years ago to study in Pakistan, and eventually became a citizen (according to an interview he did with Ahmed Quraishi). Earlier this year, he was offered a job with Al-Jazeera in Doha, and moved there with his family as a result. Most families tend to move with the principal breadwinner in such circumstances. In other words, this article had nothing to do with "enjoying freedoms" in Pakistan.

Would your own family have acted differently under similar circumstances?

Revoke her visa ,we dont want no Arabs nothing but trouble for us.

She is a citizen of Pakistan, so good luck with trying to "revoke her visa" over penning an article that essentially praises our imported democratic political system and laments that the Arab states have largely chosen not to emulate the polities of our colonial masters with the same joyous enthusiasm that we in Pakistan have.

And kindly clarify: who are the "we" you talk about, and why exactly are the Arabs "nothing but trouble for us"?

 

[RoadRunner401]

Her father is a journalist who opposes the Assad family's rule; he left Syria many years ago to study in Pakistan, and eventually became a citizen (according to an interview he did with Ahmed Quraishi). Earlier this year, he was offered a job with Al-Jazeera in Doha, and moved there with his family as a result. Most families tend to move with the principal breadwinner in such circumstances. In other words, this article had nothing to do with "enjoying freedoms" in Pakistan.

Would your own family have acted differently under similar circumstances?

One doesn't move all his family from one dictator ship to another, looking for freedom. What circumstances? How many families do you know of that can afford to move from one country to another just to study and pay all bills without a job. Lot more to the story then, we know.