Shining Pakistan

The last few weeks have been hard on any Pakistani living outside their homeland. First was the Abbottabad incident with the supposed killing of Osama on Pakistani soil. Had anyone not known about Pakistan, they would have now gotten to know it as if it was a household name. Pakistan’s continued negative portrayal by the media makes the environment that overseas Pakistanis live in a bit more harsher – as if 9/11 was not enough! The war on terror has always made Pakistan look like the enemy and the capture of Bin Laden has just enhanced that belief amongst the westerners. Pakistan, the country of beautiful mountains and valleys is now home for terrorism.

Western media is harsh! CNN, Fox news, you name it…they are out to get us. Please note that the CNN World that you see in Pakistan is not the CNN that we get out here in North America. The one we get here has a totally different tone… it is not laid back or neutral, it is biased! I don’t think people in Canada even know about the drone attacks that kills innocent Pakistani civilians every day. They do however know about militancy, the threat of so called “Islamic terrorism” that is according to them growing out of control in Pakistan. Just another reason for the Americans and Canadians to support their governments in the huge military budgets and allow for cuts in health and education.

The day of the Abbottabad incident was probably one of the most difficult to face since 9/11. I had always taken pride in my identity as a Pakistani Canadian. On this day, I didn’t want anyone to ask me if I was from Pakistan. I didn’t want to face the bombardment of questions. I didn’t want the world to tell me that Pakistan had given refuge to the most wanted man in the world for so many years. I wanted to avoid “topic Pakistan” at all cost! It was inevitable. I look foreign enough for people to ask me about Pakistan’s role in harboring terrorism. Pakistanis in Pakistan may think that we overseas Pakistanis have it easy but we don’t. We are ambassadors of Pakistan on a daily basis- defenders of Pakistan! Had anyone not known that I was a Pakistani, was now well aware that my blood is green for Pakistan!

Then came the PNS Mehran incident. A fractured image of Pakistan was future disintegrating. Pakistan seemed weaker, easily subjected to torment. Most painful week of my life… I didn’t sleep for 4 days after this incident, let alone eat… Patriotism was on an all high as I was on guard again defending a nation which had been so wrongly portrayed to the West. To the west, Pakistan was no longer capable of protecting its nuclear assets!

Had this been enough I might not have been writing this article. Battered and bashed up by the PNS Mehran, we were faced with the selfless murder of a boy, Sarfaraz in Karachi last week. Right or wrong is probably not the issue here. As a Pakistani Canadian, I had been defending my Armed forces all along, and now I am asked by Canadians as to how the armed forces of my country could do something so heartless and brutal. What do I tell them… I tell them that the wrong doing of one should not be enough to point fingers at an entire force; I tell them about the floods last year and how our army helped; I tell them about the strength and determination of our army; I tell them about Yaser bhai and Rashid Minhas Shaheed and how brave men in our nation keep it alive and allow us to sleep at night without fear.

What will come next, I don’t know. All I can say is that Pakistan is now no longer a mystery place where people run around in leaves as the west had believed. It is now a household term for terrorism and torture. It is entirely up to people like me who live in the West to change that perspective in people’s minds and make them realize that Pakistan is truly God’s heaven on earth.