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Keep the hope alive, dear Pakistanis

Keep the hope alive, dear Pakistanis

Be positive. Be productive. Be passionate. Be Pakistani!

Imran Ahmad Khan August 24, 2012

We are no messiahs and we are certainly not asking you to turn a blind eye to all the problems that we face. It is always good to remain cognizant of the challenges that lie ahead of you ─ it can help you plan better. But there must never be any room for you to lose hope.

Hopelessness, we have been told, is faithlessness. And we have faith. We have faith in the people of this country. We have faith in our belief that the people of this country will complement each other.

‘The Pakistanis’ is a celebration of the little things that give us another reason to love Pakistan; jalebi, mangoes, our hospitality, and our beautiful landscapes and people. It is a tribute to a nation that needs a reminder, now more than ever, that there is still a lot to love and cherish. There are colours, accents, flavours and aromas in our people, languages, food and land, that have helped us create an unbreakable bond with our country.

We discovered many lovely Pakistanis while shooting this video and that gave us hope. There is a Pakistani in all of us who wants to be optimistic, happy, and believes in friendship and peace; a Pakistani who wants to smile and dream. We are hopeful people and we ask you to find hope!

Be positive. Be productive. Be passionate. Be Pakistani!

About the BePakistanii team:

Aan Asif Cheema is a senior at LUMS. She is a day-dreaming, romantic and almost foolishly optimistic girl who aims to revolutionise the small industry sector of Pakistan.

Saim Sadiq is a junior at LUMS, majoring in anthropology. He is a filmmaker by passion and the recent advent of independent filmmaking in the country has made him extremely hopeful about the future of cinema in Pakistan as a strong voice to reckon with.

Imran Ahmad Khan is a junior at LUMS, majoring in economics and politics. Cricket remains his first (and last) love, and he is a proud Pakistani cricket fanatic. Pakistan’s 2009 World T20 triumph and the 2011 World Cup campaign made him truly understand the unique strength of cricket as a binding force for Pakistanis.

Read more by Imran here or follow him on Twitter @imranahmadkh

WRITTEN BY:
Imran Ahmad Khan The author is a student of journalism at Columbia University. Before this, he worked for the Pakistan Cricket Board and the Pakistan Super League. He tweets @imranahmadkh

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

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COMMENTS (18)

Tajamal | 12 years ago | Reply Great heart touching music

Irfan | 12 years ago | Reply @bball: In the multinational companies where a majority of the LUMS graduates end up working, the international postings are quite common at some stage in career, for further growth. And after a while many of them come back to their home country at a much senior post. More of the Luminites i know have come back to Pakistan on senior positions than those who choose to stay abroad.

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Noise | 12 years ago | Reply You video is just nauseating Instead of trying to get people to take a stand against the bigotry thats destroying this country you are encouraging people to hide their heads in the sand. This is a country where the government makes deals with the murderes of Shias, where Ahmadis are denied a right to call themselves muslim. Where mobs of the faithful demand that Christian children be killed for "blasphemy" Where the people turn away their faces from these crimes and avoid talking about them. You wanna "salute the spirit of the people of Pakistan"?. A rotten spirit of a spineless people that likes acting like lions on the wagah border but their actual lifestyle is closer to rats and sheep. Look at all those people in your video say how they love Pakistan and how things will (god willing) get better and how its better than anywhere else on earth and how they'd never leave, but if you had offered them a real chance to settle in the English-speaking west they would leave this county without even a backward glance, this is how wretched this nation is. This is a country made for a stupid, shallow reason, made because our founders feared the wrath of the Hindus, but over the years the Hindus have shown themselves to be a much more enlightened and forgiving people. The pagans, who our state teaches us to malign and demonize, have shown themselves to be much more virtuous and big-hearted men than the faithful. We should just roll over and die. We have done nothing with out freedom but regress into barbarism. This land is just living space, this is not a country to be loved.

Vigilant | 12 years ago | Reply Good read & keeping hope alive

malik | 12 years ago | Reply Don't mistake 'clutching at straws' for optimism !!!

bball | 12 years ago | Reply It becomes very clear by interacting in LUMS sessions that the target of majority of students is to use LUMS as a launching pad to go abroad. How many actually make it at the end is another question - whether it's 25% or 50% - the thrust of the student body intends to. That's saying something.

Imrana Shahbaz | 12 years ago | Reply Beautiful! Yes keep the hope alive!!

LUMinite | 12 years ago | Reply Dear Shehzad, where did you get the 57% number. The last official number I saw was that less than 20% students go abroad and to study. Even if they all stay there, that should not be 57%.

Shehzad | 12 years ago | Reply Very well made video, the visuals are great but mangoes, jalebi n hareesa is not Pakistan. Dont close your eyes to reality, n generate hope outta nothing, show some clips of targeted killing, families destroyed via drones, killings in the name of religion, blasphemy charges on minorities, street crimes, terror threats, polio increase, rape of dead women, betting scandals, Thts the Pakistan i know ! I hope the ppl who made this video wud luv to live in this reality n will not b the ones like their colleagues n seniors to b the first one to leave the country and then project it on LUMS placement n orientation handbook - 57% graduates working abroad.

Haris Javed | 12 years ago | Reply simply lovable!!! the background music track is worth listening.. .

Sadaf Khot | 12 years ago | Reply loved the video and the article too.. very well written

Asma | 12 years ago | Reply This is awesome. Love the video, the people, the things they said. It actually made me realize that there is still a positivity in our people, that despite all the flaws there are the people are still Pakistani.

Amna Asim Ali | 12 years ago | Reply Well done guys. This is just spectacular. I really must say that the type of real love for Pakistan that I find in this and in many LUMS people I know is always amazing. I salute teh LUMS administration for instilling this sense of hope and also real love for country (not just slogans) in its students. P.S. The visualizations are also spectacular

Owais Masood | 12 years ago | Reply @Faraz: Try to appreciate the Good Things that are happening. It's because your 'Jahil' Mindset that "Millions of Poor Children" are without Basic Education in the first place It's not a quetion of investing in EITHER University OR School, We have to invsest in all forms of education ( Primary , Secondardary . Intermediate and Soo On).. So Stop Whinning and Flaunting Your Ignorance!

faraz | 12 years ago | Reply Can you please ask LUMS to return the 100 million rupees it got from Punjab government. Millions of poor children without basic education need that money

Nobody | 12 years ago | Reply Given the current circumstances in Pakistan and the negativity/cynicism everywhere, it's a refreshing sight to see people with a positive outlook, especially among the youth. After all it's the youth that will soon be a part (or already is a part) of the generation that I hope can take Pakistan in a different direction. A negative outlook will get you nowhere. Best of luck and keep smiling. Cheers!

Azeem | 12 years ago | Reply MashAllah. Great work ! :)

Umar | 12 years ago | Reply Beautiful. Positive but not cheesy and I love the statement about recognizing the problems but not losing hope. I think the positiveness and patriotism message of Prof. Adil Najam as the LUMS VC is beginning to have its effect and spreading through LUMS students. This is very much the message he has been writing and talking about all these years. Good to see young people taking on hope instead of despair.

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Keep the hope alive, dear Pakistanis

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