Sitting in the middle of load-shedding, watching the political theater roll-on ad infinitum, and reading the news of another security incident somewhere, it is easy to be depressed about Pakistan these days.
Depression, however, is parasitic.
It jumps from person to person and grows in strength unless treated. It makes you weak and vulnerable – and sometimes it is necessary to break the circle. Yes, Pakistan is going through very tough times, but there is no reason to throw all hope to the wind and to start denying the things that are going right – and a lot has gone right in the past twenty or so years.
First, the necessary disclaimer: The intention here is not to sweep Pakistan’s problems under the rug or to try and rationalize away the immense suffering of the victims of recent violence and economic turmoil. There is no doubt that things have taken a very serious turn in recent months and millions of people are paying a heavy price every day.
With that disclaimer in place, here’s a collection of things that I have seen change for the better in my life in Pakistan – from high-school in the eighties to today.
It is necessarily a very personal list, though others might be able to relate to some of it. Traveling apart, I’ve spent my life living in Islamabad and Lahore and my memories are naturally specific to these places. So again, I’m fully conscious of the fact that not everyone can relate to or agree with my attempt at optimism.
But even if I come across as being overly optimistic, it is only to counter those who are becoming unnecessarily pessimistic.
Maybe you have your own stories, your own inspirations, your own rays of hope that keep you going… these are mine. And I share them with the hope that they will help someone else break out of the circle of pessimism.
1989: Driving from Lahore to Islamabad was an ordeal on the mostly single-lane, badly maintained GT road.
2010: Driving from Lahore to Islamabad is a pleasure on the motorway. And it is not just this one road, a lot of roads have been added to the network or improved. I know people in my office in Islamabad who routinely drive to Karachi with their families. We need many more roads – but we have certainly not been sitting idle.
1989: Calling from Islamabad to Lahore meant going to the market to a PCO, telling the guy to book a 3-minute call and waiting around till it got connected. Even if you had an STD line at home, your fingers were likely to get sore from dialing before you got connected. And once the call was connected you watched the clock like a hawk as it was so expensive.
2010: Instant, cheap calls worldwide for everyone from cellular phones.
1995: I was first introduced to the wonders of Email in 1995. It was an offline ‘store and forward’ system (remember those @sdnpk email addresses?) . If you sent a mail in the morning, it reached in the evening when your Email provider called USA on a direct line to forward it.
2010: Broadband, DSL, WiMax, Dialup, Cable – instant connectivity for everyone. More generally, I’ve gone thru a series of denials about the adoption of new technologies in Pakistan. I went through thinking that cellular phones would never gain widespread adoption – I was wrong; that internet would remain a niche – I was wrong; that broadband would never take off here – I was wrong; that Blackberry would never be adopted – I was wrong. Here I speak from some experience as I work for a cellular company and I’ve seen all these numbers grow exponentially. The fact is that Pakistan and Pakistanis love technology and are eager to adopt and adapt the latest technologies as soon as they become available. With its huge population, this creates a large market for every new technology in Pakistan and businesses rush in to fill it. This bodes well for the future.
1986: When I finished high school, career choices were limited. You could either be a doctor or an engineer – or you could join the army or the civil service. And once you’d decided to be, say, an engineer, choices were limited to practically one or two government universities in your region. MBA was still a somewhat rare phenomena and there was only one well known business school – IBA in Karachi.
2010: As my kids move towards high school, there are many more choices, and tons of good schools to pick from. LUMS, GIKI, IBA, Bahria University, Air University, NUST (which has grown much bigger since those days) and many more. In a country that gets a beating for its lack of focus on education, we have made tangible progress – even though there is much more to do.
1986: There were few decent bookstores in Islamabad and Lahore (Feroze Sons in Lahore being an exception of course, and there were the old-book shops in Islamabad). Finding books – even prescribed books for professional education – was hard. I remember many a trip to Anarkali during my UET days looking for the latest edition of that one book that would always be short
2010: Lots of good, large stores well-stocked with books on every imaginable subject. And even Amazon delivers books in Pakistan in case you cannot find them locally – I’ve ordered books from Amazon three times, and Pakistan post has come thru each time – delivering the Amazon books in a large sack on my doorstep. In my observation, this is linked to the last point. Education / reading has grown in importance and there is a greater demand for books than before.
1992: Paying in dollars for exams like GMAT or GRE involved going to the State Bank and filling out forms – and talking your way around unhelpful clerks
2010: Better regulations, Credit Cards and foreign exchange dealers mean you can make such payments instantly. In general, financial regulations since the early nineties have been more or less consistent. While each successive government likes to blame the last one for all ills – they all end up making similar policies anyway: privatization, deregulation, increasing the tax base, etc. Implementation has been uneven and there have been setbacks, but the general direction has been towards opening up of the markets – which has resulted in many of the other changes listed here.
1989: Cashing a cheque from a bank, or paying a bill for that matter, routinely meant long queues, unhelpful clerks, long waits – and this was at the larger banks in big cities.
2010: I hardly ever go to the bank, thanks to ATMs. Bills are payable at more banks than ever and the staff is better trained than before (believe me!). There are several private banks today with a healthy competition that makes them invest in better infrastructure, improved technology, and innovation. Consumer finance products which were largely unknown twenty years ago are everywhere.
1989: There used to be exactly one brand of toothpaste – and other consumer goods offered little variety. People used to ask relatives to bring stuff like shampoos from abroad when they were visiting.
2010: Take a trip to any half decent market and you’re spoiled for choice. Go to a place like a Metro store, or the Hypermart in Lahore and you could practically be anywhere in the world. (Of course some people still like to source their shampoos from abroad but, well I guess old habits die hard!) Again, this is not just a coincidence. Privatization and deregulation have moved things in this direction.
1984: Smelly, dirty places. Few choices, mostly government owned.
2010: Modern, clean, efficient places. Plenty of choices, corporate sector thriving.
1984: You had exactly one government run channel. There was no concept of foreign channels. Listening to BBC meant tuning in to their radio service.
2010: Channel, channels, and more channels. Local, foreign, sports, news, kids – take your pick. Hate them or love them – they do inform and do give you more choices.
1989: Buying a car meant years of saving and then buying a beat-up second-hand car which would break down more often than not.
2010: More leasing options, more models, more cars on the road. People who have always had cars often treat this proliferation of cars on the road as a negative (“oh the rush on the roadsâ€). But ask the man who buys / leases his first car for his family and takes them out for the first day of entertainment.
Well, I guess this is one thing that has not changed over the years. I’ve always held that among Pakistanis you will find the most open-hearted, generous people around – and I still believe this. The philanthropic sector has become more organized over the years. Edhi Trust was the torch bearer and is still doing a great job, but there are countless others. And grassroots philanthropy – now enabled by pervasive communication – is thriving. I registered the full scale of it in the aftermath of the earthquake – and it simply reinforced my belief.
I could go on.
The point is that while there is much that has gone wrong, there is much that has gone right. And we have gotten this far while getting through one political maelstrom after another. Through thick and thin we’ve shown ourselves to be resourceful, resilient, tolerant, and progressive.
While the examples here are personal they didn’t happen by coincidence. We’ve seen a strengthening of our institutions in education, finance, infrastructure, and communications. While there has been no “Grand Design” and no Jinnah or Mahatir to lead us, we’ve managed to muddle through and get a lot of things right anyway.
I’m all for being self critical, and at another time I could write an equally long list of things that have become worse over the years. But we must not be dismissive for the sake of being dismissive. There is much that is good in Pakistan – and it is important to draw strength from our achievements even as we try to correct our mistakes.
Farid Ahmad blogs at ‘How Many Roads Must a Man Walk Down.’
I think you need to thank GLOBALIZATION for all the things listed above.
I am of the opinion that whenever we have some advancements in a sector of our country, mostly it is in interest of very few people. many times it is not what our leaders do to make our lives easier, but to make things easy for some other foreign powers and their own kickbacks and commissions.
Yes, in this all process, ordinary people do get some relief, but also look at the price that we pay for all these advancements. And look who are the people making profit out of these projects.
Roads and Transportation:
If you think that Motorway was built to make ordinary man’s life easier. You are wrong. If you want to know why it was built? Look at the use of these roads, how they are being used.
1- It provides a shortest route to Afghanistan from Karachi. So, all the NATO supplies, reach their destination quickly.
2- Now feudal lords can quickly run to Islamabad to join a session in Assembly ( or attack on supreme court )
Communications:
1- Look how much time we and our young generation spend on cell phones. Now we take pride in giving our cell phones to 4 years old kids, and boast about the intelligence of new generation.
2- We spend billions of rupees, in useless text messages and if you look at the Financial Statements of all these cell phone and communication companies, you will be shocked, to see how much money they are taking away from us each year.
3- Look at the newspapers, how many people die each month in mobile snatching.
4- People who earn 20,000 per month, keep a 40,000 Rs. Worth mobile phone.
Internet:
1- Earlier it used to be very difficult to go to a video store and muster some courage to ask for a blue film. It would take months of planning to find a friend who has a VCR in his home and again plan for months when all of his family members going to a wedding or something, so we could watch blue film. Now you know, its not a big deal, anytime anywhere ;)
2- Now, my friends, if you have teenagers in your home. Don’t look in the hard drive of their PCs. You will get a heart attack. I have worked as a computer technician. And people used to bring their PCs to me if they get any viruses. I have seen all those videos and pictures. Even on 9 year old girls’ / boys computers. . This is sad.
3- Have you ever given any thought, how much time we spend in doing studies, research or knowledge instead of useless chatting, watching porn, downloading wallpapers of Indian actresses ? think about it.
Education:
1- All our education system is in hands of very shrewd businessmen. They are making millions each year in the name of education. And the education that they provide is considered nothing when students immigrate abroad. They have to re-take the exams and spend another 3-4 years to get the equivalent degree.
2- Now you have so many schools providing MBA degrees for instance, but how many students are really doing the job of an MBA. Most of the time they are dong clerking jobs, or jobs which doesn’t need an MBA degree. There are still only 2 top business schools. And their students do get an MBA job. All other students face very hard time and are ridiculed to be an MBA.
3- Due to our education system, now it takes more time to our youngmen to become a man who could support himself and his family. 22 years of age to get a degree. Another 5-7 years of work experience. 28 is the average age of a person when he is able to get married and start his own life. Before that to satisfy his physical, emotional and psychological needs, he is always under pressure and try to find ways to satisfy these needs. These include Porn movies, affairs with girls, living in romantic fantacies. Sad.
Bookstores:
I agree on this one. No comments.
Foreign Currency Regulation:
Because of our currency regulations, billions of rupees / dollars are transferred out of the country each year. Illegally.
Banks:
After 60 years of independence, we still dealing in ‘HARAM’ which is Riba, or sood. Prophet SA said, giving or taking interest is like having adultery with a mother. And we all Pakistanis do it on daily basis
Consumer Choice:
Because of all these credit cards, we are becoming a nation of creditors. And have you ever talked to an economist, how it affects your economy ? and don’t even talk to economist. Just talk to an accountant that how much extra in interest you pay if you buy a car on leasing. Almost double !!
Television / Information:
Thinking that all these dozen of TV channels providing all the knowledge of the world to you, is just waste of time. What knowledge you are gaining. In 2007 there were almost 20 TV channels, in all regional languages. To make the people ‘ba shaoor’ but look at the result of the election. The people we elected.
How much time we spend in front of TVs.
In older days, TV would start on 5:00 pm in the afternoon and would shut off after 11:00 pm. Now, TV starts 9:00 in the morning. Our women watch all those rubbish Indian dramas, then our teenagers, come back from their schools and colleges, and watch Indian movies, half nude songs. Then our grown ups come from their work and sit in front of tv and educate themselves with all the latest politics. And then go back to Tea Hotel and spend another 2-3 hours of heated discussions, to prove which politician in right and who is wrong.
Things we should consider :
1- After watching all these TV, can we still make good decisions, and elect better leaders. Really ?
2- The time that we spend in front of TV, could be spend in reading, thinking about our professions, or work. How to make it better, how to complete the task in efficient way that you left at your desk today while leaving your office.
3- Look at the time that we spend in our offices in discussing TV talk shows. Reading newspapers, instead of our professional material. Debates that take place in our work places, one person who watched ‘Mere Mutabiq’ and the other person who watched ‘Point Blank’. How they try to show their knowledge and win the argument. Instead of debating over a professional theory or principles.
Cars:
All over the world, people trying to rely less on automobiles, and looking for more efficient ways to reduce pollution, save time and energy. And we take pride in having traffic jams and upload videos on youtube to show the world that how many cars we have in Pakistan.
Having more cars is not an achievement.
Look at our behavior on the road. Do we follow the rules of traffic. We abuse each other. We don’t give way to other people. Even to ambulances. we look in other people’s car through windows and ogle each other women. we never drive in lanes. We block intersections. Going wrong way to just save 2-3 minutes of our time.
Having more cars is not a sign of achievement.
Philanthropy:
Need some more time on this.
Here is a small list.
1- How much you give to your maid when she asks for some extra money for her child’s medicine, and how much you give Tips to a waitor, when you eat at a bigger hotel.
2- How much time you spend in your air conditioned rooms, knowing that somewhere in the city a 2 months old baby is dying in a hospital because of load shedding.
3- The amount of food that you waste in your weddings. 5-7 dishes in a norm. while hundreds of people doing suicide and killing their children because of hunger.
Continued . . .
( rest later )
Why is virtually everything mentioned here some kind of of western innovation (Cell phones, DSL, credit cards) that is adopted throughout the world? Is that really an improvement or just leeching of the innovation of others? It is not exactly hard to beat the previous generation in technology.
This is an important perspective to keep. If we keep a positive attitude, we can continue and even speed up the progress. What is to be gained from negativity? I always hear people talking badly about Pakistan. Always complaining. I love my country and I would rather work to fix problems than only complain. Thank you for this post.
Dear Farid Ahmed, you have mentioned improvements in life from the point of view of a middle class person in Pakistan. For the lower class Pakistan has failed to provide low cost housing, better market supply, improvements in public education , public health and public transportation.