The Indian media nourish us a steady diet of stories about bomb blasts, gunfights, kidnappings, torture, and subjugation of women, converting Hindus into Islam and scary madrassa schools that are training the next generation of jihadist terrorists. And yes, for to many Westerners and especially Indians, Pakistan is the enemy, symbolizing all that is wrong in the world. Numerous international relations analysts proclaim that Pakistan is “the most dangerous place in the world” and the border with India is “the most dangerous border in the world.”
Firstly, this is absolutely wrong impression on Pakistanis. When I met many well groomed Pakistanis in Dubai and Saudi, I was seriously impressed by the way they carry themselves professionally. This created attentiveness to me to know more about Pakistan life and society; luckily I met one Indian journalist who travelled to Pakistan twice and he shared his experience of his journey. Seriously his experiences were like eye opening stories for me on Pakistan life. He shared his ride on throughout organized Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. In his 3 week journey, he didn’t get a chance to see many beggars in those cities, where as he had spent his significant amounts of time in two major Indian cities, Mumbai and Bangalore, as well as several second-tier cities like Mangalore, and none would compare favorably on maintenance and city planning, especially when it came to potholes and waste management. This was the first surprise; I was expecting that piles of garbage and dirt would line the roads and beggars would overflow onto the streets. Surely there is dirt and poverty in Karachi, but far less than I was expecting.
My second pleasant surprise was to know numerous large development projects under way. I had read about Pakistan’s sluggish GDP growth and corruption in public works and foreign aid disbursement. This may be true, new movie theaters, new malls, new skyscrapers, new roads, and entire new neighborhoods being built from scratch. In this regard it is very similar to India and every other part of Asia. In this eternally air-conditioned Pakistan, there exist fashion shows, rock bands, literary festivals, internationally prominent writers, Oscar-winning filmmakers and the bold anchors of a lively new electronic media. This is the glamorously liberal country upheld by English-speaking Pakistanis fretting about their national image in the West. Another thing, in Pakistan no one throws beer bottles or trash on the highways and motorways.
Secondly, our Indians think Pakistanis do bomb blast in India but many of us were not aware that even Indian military do bomb blasts in Pakistan. Many innocents kids and people get brutally killed by Indian Army near Kashmir borders, we Indians think entire Pakistan is bad and same Pakistanis think entire India is bad but nobody understands all these are political dramas. Every Pakistani is not a terrorist, if the government is not correct no one can help. Kashmir has been occupied by 3 countries; India, Pakistan and China. But why only fight between India and Pakistan for Kashmir, why not with China? Yes, here everyone knows that China has got strong Army base, and it’s very difficult to touch them. This shows our political scenarios, however innocent people will be wounded for unwanted reasons.
Finally, Pakistan is surely the most well-organized, picturesque and endearing country. Few Indians would, however, know this, or, if they did, would admit it. After all, the Indian media never highlights anything positive about Pakistan, because for it only 'bad' news about the country appears to be considered 'newsworthy'. That realization hit me as a rude shock the moment I understood of Pakistanis life and society. I request Indian and Pakistan media to stop showcasing only bad things of the country; even there are many positive things that our citizens are not aware. We should stop criticizing Pakistanis in social networks like FB, Twitter. Even they are common people like us; Pakistan looks pretty much like everywhere else.
