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| Peter Oborne Tells Story About Pakistan |
Are we wrong about Pakistan?
When Peter Oborne first arrived in Pakistan, he expected a 'savage' back water scarred by terrorism. Years later, he describes the Pakistan that is barely documented - and that he came to fall in love with
It was my first evening in Pakistan. My hosts, a Lahore banker and his
charming wife, wanted to show me the sights, so they took me to a restaurant
on the roof of a town house in the Old City.
My food was delicious, the conversation sparky – and from our vantage point we
enjoyed a perfect view of the Badshahi Mosque, which was commissioned by the
emperor Aurangzeb in 1671.
It was my first inkling of a problem. I had been dispatched to write a report
reflecting the common perception that Pakistan is one of the most backward
and savage countries in the world. This attitude has been hard-wired into
Western reporting for years and is best summed up by the writing of the
iconic journalist Christopher Hitchens. Shortly before he died last
December, Hitchens wrote a piece in Vanity Fair that bordered on
racism.
Pakistan, he said, was “humourless, paranoid, insecure, eager to take offence
and suffering from self-righteousness, self-pity and self-hatred”. In
summary, asserted Hitchens, Pakistan was one of the “vilest and most
dangerous regions on Earth”.
Since my first night in that Lahore restaurant I have travelled through most
of Pakistan, got to know its cities, its remote rural regions and even parts
of the lawless north. Of course there is some truth in Hitchens’s brash
assertions. Since 2006 alone, more than 14,000 Pakistani civilians have been
killed in terrorist attacks. The Pakistan political elite is corrupt,
self-serving, hypocritical and cowardly – as Pakistanis themselves are well
aware. And a cruel intolerance is entering public discourse, as the
appalling murder last year of minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti after he
spoke out for Christians so graphically proves. Parts of the country have
become impassable except at risk of kidnap or attack.
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| Peter Oborne Tells Story About Pakistan |
