Letter from
Lahore
April
27, 2007
It has been over twenty years
since I visited Pakistan, so it was a long overdue
journey to take the family back for a visit. Having
spent 17 days traveling through Punjab and Kashmir,
I thought it would be fitting to give my impression
of the country.
Clearly, there has been a tremendous amount of
change over the last twenty years. The two things
that stand out are the traffic and the population.
The number of people has almost doubled in the
last twenty years, and Lahore has grown much larger.
The road traffic is also much heavier, and there
are few animals on the roads now, almost everything
is motorized. The rickshaws are still spewing
pollution into the streets, except in Islamabad,
where they are banned.
There are strong signs of the economic boom that
is happening in the country. I saw many families
of modest means getting around on motorcycles.
The gas stations are quite modern looking and
well run. There is a very real boom in phone services,
and stiff competition between the mobile phone
companies.
In Islamabad, a huge new residential and office
complex is being put up by Arab investors. In
Mirpur, a Malaysian company is building a new
1000 luxury home tract around the new lakeshore
of Mangla Reservoir. The Mangla Dam height is
being raised. Everywhere we went there was road
construction, and the new motorway between Lahore
and Islamabad was first class. Around Lahore a
new ring road is under construction, and air travelers
are enjoying the new airport in Lahore, which
will soon be matched by a new facility in Islamabad.
Brick kilns were quite common and very active,
supplying building materials to the people. The
farmlands of Punjab looked well kept and lush.
And the people in general seemed industrious.
Unlike twenty years ago, I did not encounter hordes
of able-bodied beggars. The beggars this time
were uniformly disabled people or extremely elderly.
The other major change is the vast presence of
private schools. Everywhere I turned there seemed
to be a private school taking in students. This
perhaps reflects a failing of the government to
provide decent public education, but it is better
than no schooling at all, and reflects the hunger
many Pakistanis have to see their children educated.
In Lahore and Islamabad these days there are McDonald’s
and Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, bringing
American tastes to the locals. However, as my
children found to their disappointment, the fast
food has a Pakistani twist to it, with spiced
chicken at KFC and pizza that differs from the
US version. McDonald’s was closest to the
American product. Although Pakistan has seen some
real economic development, it is telling that
going to McDonald’s is still a treat for
the elite, and far too expensive for the average
person.
The billboards were rather interesting. In the
billboards, Pakistanis were all comfortably well
off, well fed, and rather pale in complexion.
This idealized version of Pakistan was at odds
with the world on the street.
Politically, it seemed there was little or no
enthusiasm for anything on the horizon. While
Musharraf and the military were not favored by
many I came across, there was also no enthusiasm
for the PPP or PML. On the other hand, there was
clearly no support for the MMA in Punjab, and
fears of the MMA taking over Pakistan I think
are way overblown. In general, it seemed that
most Pakistanis wanted to get on with their lives,
and did not believe that any government was going
to help solve their problems.
