“My passion is my country. I work for Pakistan,” he said, addressing a small gathering at Agha Hasan Abedi Auditorium at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) on Friday evening.
Khan’s documentary, titled ‘Rediscovering Pakistan - The Untold Story’, was aired for the first time on Friday. It narrates an inspiring tale of nine foreigners who came to Pakistan in May this year. Khan has been facilitating foreigners’ visits in the northern areas through his motorcycle since 2013.
Born and raised in Lahore, Khan admitted he was confused as a child, and never really understood what he wanted to do in life. In 2005, he went to study in San Francisco, where he changed his major five or six times.
One thing that remained with him constantly was his passion for motorcycles. “I had motorcycle posters in my room when I was a child,” he said. “I used to steal my carpenter’s bike and I will force my maulvi sahab to let me ride otherwise I would not study.”
In 2006, he managed to get his first motorcycle but had to sell it in 25 days to make rent. “When I was studying, there was always bad news about Pakistan. I had nothing good to tell my friends.”
As these thoughts stayed in his mind, he randomly decided one day to ride his motorcycle all the way from San Francisco to Lahore. To finance the trip, Khan worked 80 hours a week and ate boiled rice with ketchup for 18 months. He moved out of his apartment and stayed at his cousins or a friend’s garage.
By 2011, Khan had saved up enough money to take off for Lahore. He rode through 22 countries, covering a distance of 40,000km in six months. Somewhere along the way while he was in Vietnam and Thailand that Khan realised his passion was not motorcycles, but Pakistan.
The untold story
Khan’s documentary is a tale of one Malaysian and eight American bikers who came to Pakistan for a 15-day visit. They met Khan for the first time when they landed at Lahore airport.
The motorcycle journey of these foreigners, two of whom were women, covers their route from Islamabad to up North. “The trip of a lifetime,” describes an American biker on the documentary, as he manoeuvres through the narrow roads along Chitral River.
Khan ensured that the cost of the programme is low. “It is not a money-making business,” he explained. “You can’t charge too much from foreigners. Their motorcycles were sponsored, and so was the fuel.”
Khan’s work has been thriving. In 2013, two people came and two others dropped out after the killing of tourists at Fairy Meadows. This year he has organised two tours and plans six more next year.
“I didn’t know anything about the country when I first set off,” he said. “I still don’t know. The hospitality is unbelievable.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2014.
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