What I learned about Pakistan in Muscat

[Dance]

I’m in a new land. Many back home think I am amongst the lucky few who have had the chance to live abroad and see “better days”. But, I wonder, do Pakistanis find happiness in the fact that they are actually home?

I was filled with an overwhelming longing for Pakistan as soon as I landed in Muscat. The alien atmosphere, the new faces, the strange dresses, and the various dialects intimidated me. For the first time in my life, I felt proud of being a Pakistani, of wearing our traditional shalwar kameez and bearing the traditional Pakistani look. When someone asked me who I was, I told them I was a Pakistani and strangely, it felt very exciting to say that! I did not know what this new place had to offer me; for the first time in many troubling months, I thought of Pakistan with gratitude, for giving me so much without ever asking for anything in return.

When I tell the locals I am from Pakistan, they have both good and bad things to say. A local driver told me:

“Your country, it’s a lovely place to be…My brother lives there in Karachi and we used to visit them every year.”

He smiled through the rear view mirror as he merrily told us about his version of Pakistan.

“But see, there is so much killing in your land now, we dare not go! Everyone has weapons, they snatch your money, your phone, they kill you.”

He pointed his hand as though he was holding a gun.

“Guns, bombs, Kalashnikovs,” he said shaking his head.

“So many of them! My brother is moving back to Muscat, it’s not safe there. Too much blood in your country, sister, too much blood.”

I looked away, thinking of a way to defend my country without picking a fight when he spoke again.

“Subhan’Allah there is so much beauty in your land. You have rains; we see it on television here. You have so many seasons in Pakistan. Must be great, no?”

He smiles through the mirror again.

“Allah has blessed you with so many fruits, so many vegetables, spices, Pakistani cotton and what not! They export it all here in Oman, sister. I tell you, they are the best there is!”

Listening to him, I’m compelled to think about all the goodness still left in my country. Despite all the complaining do we have good things left in Pakistan? I know the goodness, decency, honesty, kindness and integrity around me.

I loved the sound of the sound of the word Pakistan as a child; the land of the pak (the pure). This is the land where history and culture mystifies hearts, where hospitality to guests is a religion, where the shrines of Sufis cast their spiritual shadow over a nation of believers.

The world keeps telling us that we are failing as a nation. We have hope, and as long as we have that, we have not yet failed.


What I learned about Pakistan in Muscat – The Express Tribune Blog

 

[Respect4Respect01]

I LOVE PAKISTAN MORE THAN MY LIFE!!!!!!

 

[Qasibr]

Pakistan is a phenomenon. Twice a superpower has come to it's borders, both times there's been alot of strife and life has been made difficult. Gen Hameed Gul, former head of the ISI, narrates how the current situation of upheaval and bomb blasts reminds him of the 80's when the KGB - premier intelligence of that superpower(USSR), was causing havoc over here.

Now it's another superpower's intelligence agency, the CIA. Their assassins roam around the streets and kill. Their UCAVs(drones) attack "suspects" and kill, along with a suspect, his children, neighbors, etc - all the while espousing values like "innocent until proven guilty" and high notions like that. But this too shall pass.

Someone said that Pakistan operates on the principles of "rocket propulsion". Things get so bad for us that people have all but written us off. The situation looks hopeless. And then, suddenly it seems like someone has lit a fire under the nation and they zoom off and light up the skies like a rocket. Our wily and cunning neighbor had crossed international borders and invaded us, and we lost a province. India conducted it's first crude/"dirty bomb" atomic tests soon after that, and people thought Pakistan was strategically done for. And we were a nuclear power less than ten years after that, despite the fact that western experts with their false sense of superiority, felt we couldn't possibly achieve such a feat even if we had fifty years.

I don't think Pakistan can be written off. It is quiet a miracle that it is still standing looking at the list of enemies ganging up on it. Stronger countries crippled under less. Yugoslavia had it's own fighter aircraft industry and was a very powerful country - it crumbled very quickly when it had to face a 4th Generational Warfare assault with all it's facets like the one we're facing.