After having studied, worked and lived in North America for 13 years, moving back to Pakistan was one of the most difficult decisions I ever made. Now that I have been living in Karachi for the last 3 1/2 years, my only regret is why did I not move back sooner?
For me the decision to move back was clear, although a very difficult and a complex decision, like it is for almost all expatriate Pakistanis, but nonetheless clear. I was absolutely convinced that I needed to go back to Pakistan. Such a difficult decision was not arrived at overnight nor was it triggered by any particular event, rather it took me almost 4 years to think through this decision, and after numerous trips to Pakistan, came a point in the summer of 2004 when I said “adios” to the Bay Area in California. When I moved back to Karachi, Pakistan, I did not have a job lined-up nor did I have any business lined-up or a setup for me to take-over. It was a decision based on fundamentals, not upon transient or secured opportunities which I had to simply execute. Although I’ll admit that I tried very hard to do like that, like most people would do before taking a plunge, but I could not succeed, this also like most people. What I mean, as a sensible working professional, one would try and secure a good job before making a move, or one would try to setup a business and then make a move, but I came to the conclusion, none of these things were possible, at least not that would meet my standard until and unless I was there myself and understood the ground realities. You have to be in Pakistan yourself to make things happen. If you think you can secure an excellent job in Pakistan while sitting in the US, you are 99% incorrect in thinking this way. If you think you can setup a viable business in Pakistan while sitting in the US, which would form the basis of your moving back to Pakistan, think again. Both of these classic lines of thinking by expatriate Pakistanis are pseudo-myths.
The paramount reason of my moving back to Pakistan was family. For me, home is where your family is. I.e. Parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, etc. In my case, all of them, for both myself and my wife’s were in Pakistan. Since there was no conceivable way that we all could live in the US at the same time, the only logical place was Pakistan. This was simply the primary driving force. To me, most things tangible and non-tangibles were gradually becoming quite meaningless without the presence of my family members. I wanted to see these people on a daily or weekly basis, and be available physically during the ups and downs of the family. For me, a fundamental value of life was staying close to the family members since I drove the maximum happiness out of this. So In short, I can even say, in the pursuit of my happiness and to defend my core values in life, I had to be in Pakistan.
Secondly, I wanted my family members to benefit from my experiences in life, my exposure to different thoughts and different individuals in this world, be those experiences academic, professional or otherwise. I wanted to give back to my family for all what they have done for me. So initially, I used to send US Dollars back home to take care of their issues, needs, luxuries, etc. Used to have long phone conversations to solve outstanding issues or give them suggestions / advice, etc. Used to visit Pakistan frequently to take up pending matters, etc, etc. The list goes on and on… In many ways, there was some sort of remote control going on. It worked to some degree… However, personally, I was not satisfied with the results, as all this remote control was having a limited effect, as expected. Moreover, it was very taxing on me personally from a mental energy perspective, and mostly, I wanted to make a difference in the lives of my family members, especially on the immediate ones on a daily basis. This was only possible with my personal presence. Period. There was no two-ways about it. I mean, why should your family members not benefit from your experiences and capabilities? Why should your old parents go to the hospital all by themselves? Why should your nieces and nephews make the same mistakes that you made when you were young?
Thirdly, I used to say to myself, how can one abandon one’s homeland? How can you not live there anymore? How can you not payback your parents, siblings and other people who have helped you become what you are today? Granted, there are many issues with Pakistan, but hey, it’s your home. If there are issues, try to solve them. Work on them. Make your 2 cent contribution. You should not run-away from it. If you do, your homeland will be taken over by the dogs, which it is already. This basically means, your running-away will make this place even more miserable, and since you cannot detach yourself from this place, you cannot get rid of this place’s identity, since you cannot get rid of this skin, colour and name, you might as well embrace it and try to make the best of it. I was absolutely convinced, running away from it will make the situation worse, and it will come back again and again to haunt me.
I mean, I used to say to myself, what am I weighing these core values against? A better car? A better house? A better Job? Is this a good trade-off? I just could not trade my core values against material and non-material advantages for myself. I just couldn’t. All three reasons/values above were the primary driving factors behind the decision, however, the following few made the transition easier.
First of all, my thinking was, if all these people in Pakistan, compared to whom I considered myself more educated and more capable professionally, can make a good living in Pakistan and live comfortably, then why can’t I? I’m no less than them. In fact, in many ways, I’m much more capable than them. So what’s the fear in moving to Pakistan? If I really want I will be able to find a good job, or if I really want, I can start-up a new business or do many things which people in Pakistan are already doing and make a good living. In fact, I should be able to do it better than them. I was pretty confident!
Armed with this confidence, I managed to overcome my fear of jumping into the unknown, and by the grace of Allah, my confidence was not unfounded.
What I found out was, Pakistan is a relatively simple, inefficient and backward economy, therefore, there are tremendous opportunities in this country. The biggest scarcity in this country is management talent, which is generally the forte of expatriate Pakistanis. You can take anything, starting from a small retail shop, like a mobile shop, to an IT / software company, to a large multinational company, to a traditional textile manufacturing concern, management talent, by and large, is not world-class here. I mean there are many world-class professionals running the economy, however, compared to the opportunities, the quantity is very very limited. Therefore, you can decide to do any business you want, and you can do it better than most people in Pakistan. Period. Expatriate Pakistanis’ forte is not having financial resources, nor having technical know-how, it’s the management skill – doing things in a methodical, scientific and professional manner. Funny as it may sound, this is an expatriate’s forte, nothing else. The Pakistanis who live in Pakistan have plenty of skills, money and market know-how regarding Pakistan, businesses, jobs and what’s going on in the world. They know it all, however, cannot execute on those ideas in a methodical manner.
So financially speaking, I used to say to myself, I’m losing out as well. I can make a lot more money in Pakistan and be with my family at the same time. What the hell am I doing in the US? And believe me, by the grace of Allah, I was a silicon valley techie and was very well taken care of from all respects by any standard, nonetheless, the potential which I could see in Pakistan was mind-boggling.
Anyway, 3 1/2 years have passed since I moved back to Pakistan, and my only regret is that I should have moved back earlier. I have lost plenty of precious time.. Right now, the only limitation that I have is time. By the grace of Allah, there are so many projects both social and financial that I can do, but due to practical considerations, I can only work on one or two things at a time. I mean you take the energy sector, the opportunities in Pakistan are limitless.. The financial, telecom, automobiles, real estate… Damn it, all sectors are exploding… Even the IT/Outsourcing industry is picking up again… So whether you are looking for a good well paying job, or thinking of starting your own business, Pakistan is the best place to be. I mean think about it, we even have a multinational company “Daewoo” running buses for us in this country. So don’t think you need to be a rocket scientist to do something here. I will not deny the problems this country has, however, most of the issues can be addressed, and for those issues, like law and order, which cannot be addressed by you, you have to learn to live with them, and as a good citizen, make your 2 cents contributions to make thing better. Running away is not a solution. If your loved ones can live in Pakistan, then so can you!!
