Young Pakistani writes winning essay

Shariq Ejaz gets to visit new US consulate.

KARACHI: The US Consulate General in Karachi held a competition in honour of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and American Black History Month. After posting Dr King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the consulate asked its fans what their dream was for Pakistan.  Hundreds of Pakistanis participated in the contest which offered an i-pod shuffle and books about Martin Luther King Jr. as a prize.  The winner of the “I have a dream for Pakistan” was Shariq Ejaz.

As an extra surprise Ejaz was able to visit the new consulate building to have lunch with Information Officer Andie De Arment and to meet Consul General William Martin. “It was an experience of a lifetime,” said Ejaz. “I had the golden opportunity [of meeting] Consul General Martin and this day won’t ever [leave] my mind.”

Martin welcomed the opportunity to honour the young man’s vision, said a press release. “It is important to support people who have a positive vision and a dream that they are working to achieve,” he said. “The consulate will continue to connect to young Pakistanis in new ways and to increase our people-to-people interactions between Americans and Pakistanis.”

The following is an excerpt from Ejaz’s essay: “I have a dream that one day every child of my country, from the foothills of the Himalayas in the north, to the warm waters of the Arabian Sea in the South, will have books, not guns in their hands.”

“Those children will live in a nation where they are not judged by their class, race and affluence, but by the values they posses and the character they display. One day our youth will no longer become tools in the hands of ethnic bigots; that our educational institutions will impart knowledge and preach peace and tolerance and not serve as breeding grounds of violence. The villagers will build schools, not graveyard for little girls and little boys will grow into scholars, not bombers.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2011.