Countries at the bottom of the list, like Pakistan, will find it very hard to move forward because of poor image.
DOHA: This is with reference to your report of May 17 titled “Iran, Pakistan, Israel most negatively rated countries: BBC poll”.
Our rating shows where we stand in the world. This affects our trade, industry, health, education, import, export, financial situation and even our tourism industry. Countries at the bottom of the list, like Pakistan, will find it very hard to move forward because of their poor image.
This is the reason why our prime minister said in a television interview that the one-third Pakistanis who want to leave the country could leave whenever they wanted to because “who is stopping them from leaving”. The prime minister knew that no country would like to take us and that most of us will be stuck here for the rest of our lives.
We do not care about these surveys because we are illiterates — as illiterate as we were a thousand years ago. While the world has progressed and reached the sky, we are still in the pits. For us, it really does not matter whether we are at the top or the bottom of the ratings because we have no self-esteem.
Anwar Hasan
Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2012.
