Goodwill ambassadors share their formulas on how to counter myths about Pakistan

Panellists tell IoBM students about how they overcame hurdles to promote a positive image.

KARACHI:

When Danial Shah, a writer and photographer, took some time off from college to explore the positive side of Pakistan which has failed to attract the international media’s attention, he was shocked to learn that it wasn’t just foreigners who make erroneous assumptions.

On Saturday, Shah and 19 other panellists headed to the Institute of Business Management (IoBM) where they shared their efforts to battle negative stereotypes with the students. “When I returned to Karachi from my trip across the country, one of my colleagues even asked me if I had come across the Taliban in Islamabad,” Shah told the audience. It was then that he then decided to maintain a blog, www.iExplorePakistan.com, to dispel misgivings about the country. His efforts did not go unnoticed - in 2011, he was awarded a ‘Nishan-e-Azam’ for the initiative.

Former Ambassador Shahid Amin, who spent 39 years in the Foreign Service office and was often posted to “countries whose relations with Pakistan were strained”, explained his formula for winning hearts and shattering stereotypes. “It is often said that an ambassador is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country,” said Amin. “But I went out of my way to be honest so that I could gain people’s trust and make them see Pakistan in a more positive light.”

Muhammed Intesaruddin, a commercial adviser to the Consulate General of UAE, also shared his experiences with the audience, explaining the lengths he would go to in order to bring UAE and Pakistan closer together, economically. “I found out that they [the UAE] were investing $23 billion in our country without any real assistance from our end,” he said. “I then organised an exhibition at the Karachi Expo Centre to introduce UAE investors to their Pakistani counterparts. At least, 38,000 people attended.”



Intesaruddin went on to point out how Pakistan extended considerable assistance to Dubai 36 years ago, when it was a far cry from the tourist hub. “PIA donated an airplane to Emirates. Their first English paper, Khaleej Times, was initiated by bringing together a group of journalists from Dawn. If we can do so much to build another country, then why can’t we do this for ourselves?”

Gordon Gorman, a Scottish national who is the general manager of Avari Towers in Pakistan, told The Express Tribune about the global misperception that you can only end up in the country if you’ve done something terribly wrong.  “The first Pakistani that I met was back in 1960. It was my first day of school in Scotland,” said Gorman. “Today he is a retired millionaire in Scotland and I am still trying to make my first million here [in Pakistan].”

Gordon added that hotels all over the world want to hire Pakistanis, “not because they are cheap, but because they are hard working”.

“I head a hotel run by 350 Pakistanis and one general manager who wants to be Pakistani,” he added warmly.

Another speaker, Akbar Shahbaz, who had gone to the US to pursue a degree in mass communication, said that it was hard to ignore the fact that foreigners’ perceptions about Pakistan have grown worse. “When I was studying in the US, Pakistanis were respected a lot. A Pakistani in the US was usually either a pharmacist or a doctor. We would be accommodated with host families and welcomed during our stay. Today, we are treated very differently. And maybe because of that, the American dream has lost some of its magic for us.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2013.