Special Report
Brand Pakistan July 3, Event at Asia Society,
By the Special Correspondent, Virsa News

Overseas Pakistanis  are very found of getting together with "experts" and over chai and samosas,agonizing over what is wrong with Pakistan and its image.  It is almost always a gathering of misfits, just as if the physicians came to talk about the science of image building and graphic designers about the hazards of brain surgery.

But this was different! These participants had the right focus....... finally!!!!!

The question before them was:
Why does Pakistan and Pakistanis get a bum rap in this country?
The answer is as simple as the solution is complex.

In our cyber world it is truer than ever before that perception is reality.

This is the reality:

Pakistan is a poor third world country with a huge population, a low rate of literacy and the problems that come from the double whammy of poverty and ignorance.......... This is the downside.

Pakistan is also a country with an emerging middle class, a vibrant economy. It is nuclear power; builds airplanes; automobiles; submarines; has women pilots both civilian and military. Some of its top criminal trial lawyers are women. It is also an unexplored paradise for tourism with the largest concentration of highest peaks in the world and
some of the most interesting archeological sites ........... This is the upside.

This is the perception:

Pakistan is a failed state run by a gang of nuclear bomb toting mullahs, ready to wipe out the infidels. 

It is a view being relentlessly touted by a group of  intellectually dishonest think tanks,  news pimps at Fox, and the like.  These people have no shame, integrity or morals and use ignorance and fear of the unknown to advance their careers.
 
This is nothing new. Similar tactics have been used in the past against minorities.
 

The question is this:

 Can we finally put our act together and rely on experts in our own community in this country and do the job?

One of the speakers, Ethan Casey, author  the book  "Alive and Well in Pakistan", pointed out that other minorities have overcome prejudices and unfavorable branding. Pakistanis can do it too but they have to work for it. They can take the cue from the Jewish  and other immigrant communities in the United States who have not only preserved their culture and religion but have successfully established both as a matter of reality in everybody's mind in the United States.
His point and that of other participant was that no one is going to do it for the Pakistani community.
They have to organize professionally and do it themselves.

This is the answer:
Judging from the quality of participants, including, Rafi Shikoh, moderator for the workshop, Syed Asif Alam, President of AOPP,
and Mahreen Khan, Media Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, the impression one got was that for the first time the real issues were not only addressed, but people were serious about tackling them

Bottomline:

It was a big positive step in the right direction. But just the first big step.

 

For your listening pleasure

Ishrat Ansari

1. Farid Ayaz Qawwal
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2.  Mahnaz Begum

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4.  Ashraf Shareef Poonchwala  

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5.  Tina Sani  

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6. Junoon

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    Ustad Rais Khan |  Ikhlaq Hussain

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