Pakistan is not really the land of the pure, although we’d like it to be and may be someday, Inshallah, it will be; however, for now it’s definitely not the land of the pure. In fact it’s quite far from being the land of the pure. In 2009, I can safely say, it’s really a land of the brave – Bahaduristan.
Living in Pakistan with peace, with honesty, and with a reasonable ethical standard, requires a lot of bravery and resources. It’s not a place for the weak or straight forward, i.e. “shareef” people. Even if you want to sustain a simple principle of being able to speak the truth in all aspects of your life, you will encounter a lot of difficulties. To fight these difficulties you will need a lot of financial and mental resources, right people working for you and right people to be on your side… It’s really pathetic… It really applies to almost all things in Pakistan. Even a minor transaction can have a lot of issues with it. E.g. buying the right AC, at the right price, and to have it installed properly by the right person, even if you are willing to pay the premium, requires more work than usual on your part. I.e. identifying the right party who will not deceive you and continuously making sure your assumptions are correct about that party. The same applies to dealing with the plumber, carpenter or even if you’re dealing with a local reputable company or a big multi-national company. Buying healthy food products and genuine medicines will require the same science. To keep all these trivial things in life in order, requires a lot of effort, right contacts and resources. It’s doable, but really this brings down your productivity and increases your real costs of living and costs of doing business here.
Nobody knows anything for sure in Pakistan. People love making estimates and guesstimates. The culture of the country is not scientific at all. Even your near ones will misguide you regarding critical matters, not because they don’t intend well for you, rather because they believe their erroneous beliefs are actually correct. Even the ministry of Science and Technology will behave in the most unscientific manner. Even the Judge who is designated to decide on scientific matters will behave in the most unscientific and illogical ways – i.e. google away critical life altering decisions. Yes! No Kidding! Even the police force who are supposed to be specialized in technical matters will talk just plain rubbish. E.g. don’t be surprised if you get tangled in an argument about the definition of a leap year with a technical specialist in a high government job. I thought I knew Pakistan. I knew there was corruption, mismanagement and incompetence. But in the past 5 years ever since I moved back to Pakistan, I have come to a new realization. The situation is far more pathetic than anybody can imagine. People here don’t even understand what’s in their own economic interest. The level of corruption and more so incompetence is just mind boggling. I mean dealing with corruption is not that difficult – you just have to spend more money. But the problem with incompetence is, they just don’t understand what is right or wrong, or what is an apple or an orange, or what is difference between a car and a truck. Even when it comes to trivial things, you’ll be just amazed. This culture is so deeply ingrained with show-off, incompetence, corruption, criminal behavior and injustice at all levels of the society, that it will blow you away. Even the so called educated people are not immune to this culture. You can always find exceptions to this generalization, however, statistically, you will find these facts to be true most of the time.
Therefore, living in Pakistan requires a lot of commitment. If you start doing a fair comparison between living in Pakistan and outside, you will inevitably come to the conclusion that living outside is much better from almost all angles – be it personal, financial, or ethical. Living in Pakistan cannot be justified based on merits. Hence I say it again, living in Pakistan requires a serious commitment. Commitment that you will live in Pakistan no matter what… Commitment that you want to stay with your family members, since practically not everybody can move. Commitment of making this a better place to live for your future generation. Commitment that you can’t and will not abandon your homeland. Commitment that you want to give back to the society to make it a better place for others, and finally a commitment to yourself that you will not let the dogs drive you out of your own home.
