{"id":724,"date":"2014-01-31T09:04:31","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T09:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/?p=724"},"modified":"2014-01-31T09:42:37","modified_gmt":"2014-01-31T09:42:37","slug":"motherland-changeth-but-changeth-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/?p=724","title":{"rendered":"Motherland changeth, but changeth not"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not only had the sights and sounds which greeted me at Karachi airport not changed, but they were a world apart from the many countries I had just been to, including my last two stops, namely, Iran and UAE, both Muslim countries.<\/em><\/p>\n

(Daily Times, 30 January 2014<\/span><\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n

Last September, I fulfilled an old dream of travelling from Beijing to Moscow by train and then overland through eastern Europe to Turkey, Iran and a bit more.\u00a0 <\/span>But before describing this journey that took me to nearly two dozen countries over ten weeks, I will begin where my trip ended, in the motherland.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not only had the sights and sounds which greeted me at Karachi airport not changed, but they were a world apart from the many countries I had just been to, including my last two stops, namely, Iran and UAE, both Muslim countries.<\/p>\n

As I entered the passport control area of the airport, surrounded by a mass of ill-disciplined people, I asked the couple of officials hanging about where I could get the passenger arrival card which I needed to fill out.\u00a0 <\/span>They seemed surprised but produced one in the end.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>On my previous visit, I had been given a departure card to fill out on arrival!<\/span><\/p>\n

The throng \u2013 queues they were not \u2013 of people awaiting immigration clearance was much worse than I am used to in Pakistan.\u00a0 <\/span>As luck would have it, I had arrived at about the same time as two plane-loads of returning hajis, courtesy of Saudi Airlines. What a sight they presented: shabby of dress, ill of discipline, impatient of time and disrespectful of others!<\/span><\/p>\n

Was their behaviour in spite of the pilgrimage or on account of it, I wondered.\u00a0 <\/span>One expects hajis to have taken an oath of future good conduct before God, but on the other hand they might think that, having wiped off their past sins through pilgrimage, they were now free to do as they pleased.<\/span><\/p>\n

I could not resist asking the person in front of me, who lacked the ferocious look of many of the hajis, whether he was returning from the haj and if this was his first.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cNo, it\u2019s my third, Allah be praised\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cBut only one haj is obligatory, is it not?\u201d I asked.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cYes, but \u2026\u201d he began defensively.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Interrupting him, I said that perhaps Allah would be more pleased with him if he had given to a charity all or part of the money he had spent on his second and third pilgrimages. He sheepishly agreed with me. Now going on the offensive, I thanked him for agreeing with me but added that it wasn\u2019t enough.\u00a0 <\/span>If he was in agreement with me, he had a duty to propagate this view in future.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cYou have a point there\u201d, he conceded.<\/span><\/p>\n

This little victory over a haji compensated for the inconvenience caused by the hajis.\u00a0 <\/span>When I emerged out of the airport building there were a million men and women waiting anxiously to greet the returning holies, blocking everyone\u2019s exit. They screamed religious incantations as soon as one of theirs emerged, beaming with satisfaction and pride.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>They had reduced an international airport into something of a fish market or a <\/span>bakra mandi <\/span><\/em>(cattle market)!<\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing had changed in the motherland.<\/p>\n

But change there has been.\u00a0 <\/span>The head covering for ladies (<\/span>dupatta<\/span><\/em>) is no longer obligatory for TV anchors and newscasters.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, it is conspicuous by its absence.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>In both Karachi and Islamabad, the only cities I visited, men and women moved about freely, beard or no beard, burqa or not, dupatta or no dupatta.<\/span><\/p>\n

The big cities now have many modern shopping malls, which have made shopping easier and a more enjoyable experience.\u00a0 <\/span>For those who can afford to, that is.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>For the vast majority, I am afraid, shopping even for the bare essentials is becoming an increasingly tormenting experience, given the high prices and widespread unemployment.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the Margalla Hills as the backdrop, Islamabad is a beautiful city, with better roads, parks and buildings than before. I had occasion to see that the traffic police here are polite and helpful, but strict in enforcing the rules. The streets of Karachi, too, now look better with leafy trees adorning the dividers.<\/p>\n

While there is increasing talk of privatization, Pakistanis still have very few choices when it comes to flying.\u00a0 <\/span>It is strange that while private airlines flourish elsewhere, they choke in Pakistan. Hajvairy, Aeroasia, Bhoja and many others have gone bust.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Only two \u2013 one and a half really \u2013 are now operational, namely, Air Blue and Indus.<\/span><\/p>\n

As on previous visits, I counted the number of planes on the tarmac of the airports at Karachi and Islamabad, as an indicator of economic activity.\u00a0 <\/span>For the world\u2019s 36<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> largest country in area and 7<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> in population, the numbers are depressingly low, no more than five, perhaps fewer at any given time.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The total operational passenger air-fleet of the country is less than half that of Sharjah\u2019s Arabian Airlines! <\/span><\/p>\n

The flag-carrier PIA may be in its death throes and private airlines may be struggling, but that great symbol of Pakistan, elitism or the VIP culture, is flourishing.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One \u201crespectable\u201d lady \u2013 by all appearances a part of the English-speaking elite but devoid of the trappings or the currency of power \u2013 angrily complained about having to wait in the departure lounge and demanded of the Shaheen Airlines ground staff to be allowed to board the plane. The ground staff stood their ground with her.<\/p>\n

But soon there appeared a gentleman and two young ladies, with a uniformed personnel of some kind to press their claim to board before anyone else.\u00a0 <\/span>Now, they were a different matter altogether, so the staff did not question their \u201cright\u201d and allowed the three to board first as soon as the aircraft was ready for boarding.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the return flight from Islamabad, as every so often, I saw an underling of a \u201chigh official\u201d board the plane with the brief case of his \u201csahab\u201d, who would prefer to board last, after the \u201cmob\u201d had cleared.\u00a0 <\/span>How could the \u201csahab\u201d suffer the ignominy of having to carry his own bag or to rub shoulders with the ordinary public!<\/span><\/p>\n

President Barak Obama has no problem carrying his own brief case. In fact, everyone in the West, rich or not-so-rich, ruler and ruled, carries his own bag.\u00a0 <\/span>Not so in the Islamic Republic.<\/span><\/p>\n

As they say in French, the more it changes the more it remains the same.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>By Razi Azmi<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not only had the sights and sounds which greeted me at Karachi airport not changed, but they were a world apart from the many countries I had just been to, including my last two stops, namely, Iran and UAE, both … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raziazmi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}