Visiting a fortress

The consul general remarks that he sees major improvement and potential turnaround in Pakistan’s relationship with US

Recently, I met the United States consul general in Peshawar for an interview. As one might expect, there were loads of security measures taken both, prior to the interview and when I actually visited the consulate general building itself. The consul general informed me that the security had not always been this strict and that the security measures undertaken by the staff often deter visitors from coming to the facility. The communications officer at the consulate general said that my husband — who had accompanied me — and I had it relatively easy compared with what some other visitors to the consulate have to go through.

Before the interview took place, the communications officer verified with the head of the Peshawar desk that I was an actual member of staff here at the Tribune Peshawar office. Then she arranged a meeting with me at my office to presumably check me out and get information about what kind of interview I would be expected to do. She also asked for our full names and identity card numbers.

On the day of the interview, it took some hunting and searching on the rickshaw for the correct pedestrian entryway into the US consulate offices. Then we had to pass several security posts with armed guards and two metal detectors before finally reaching the consul general’s office. After the interview, we ended up being questioned by intelligence staff regarding the purpose of our visit and information about our pasts.

As the consul general himself told me, things in Peshawar for US consul generals were not always this way. The consulate has been in Peshawar since the 1960s but it is only in recent years that security around the building had to be increased following an attack on it and also because of the threats that previous consul generals had received. On an optimistic note, the consul general remarked that although 2011-12 marked a low point in terms of US-Pakistan relations, he sees major improvement and potential turnaround in Pakistan’s relationship with the US of late.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2015.