Our diaspora

From cleaners to workshop attendants, from plumbers to engineers, hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis live abroad. Toiling either under the scorching middle-eastern sun or living and working under harsh conditions elsewhere across the world, these Pakistanis earn their bread and butter, run their extended families back home and remit into Pakistani bank accounts raising our foreign currency reserves.
They will eventually return. They have all the right to participate in the political process in their home country even while being abroad. Also, people who had to flee from torture and oppression unleashed by Gen Zia’s martial rule and those who escaped persecution for religious reasons in recent years, have all the right to be sentimental about what goes right or wrong in Pakistan.
But I am always intrigued by the views of a section of Pakistani diaspora in Europe, North America and Australia, particularly in the UK, US and Canada. They sought greener pastures for economic reasons, a better standard of living relative to their social class back home, a comfortable life for themselves and their dependents, and, coming from a middleclass professional background, to obtain a passport of a developed country in order to globetrot freely if need be.
They chose to settle in these advanced countries for good. They opted new citizenships and pledged allegiances to the Queen of England or the Constitution of the United States of America, besides to other sovereigns or constitutions in the countries they were naturalised in.
Like in any diaspora, the first generation longs for the ancestral homeland and takes pride in not severing its roots. Although none of them would ever return even if they half-heartedly wish to. They are perfectly rational when a choice is to be made between the ancestral homeland and the adopted country. Nor their children will ever come back.
These Pakistanis live in industrial and post-industrial societies where academic and technological advancements over centuries have made basic amenities of life available to all, luxuries of life available to many and fundamental rights of citizens realised to a large extent. These societies remain human societies though and face a host of challenges with an inner struggle to become more civilised waged from within.
For instance, the new controversies that have emerged in the wake of 9/11 like the limitations imposed on the right to wear a veil by some Muslim women in places like France or making a film castigating Muslims in the Netherlands are all being fought from within by European rights groups. The Dutch parliament did not allow the film to be screened.
The UK, US and Canada, which most Pakistanis abroad have adopted as their countries have not seen such limitations either. By any means, these societies are more democratic, inclusive, pluralistic and secular in nature. The state does not intervene in an individual’s personal or community life, her orientation or faith, and the right to express an opinion.
This gives people from diverse ethnic origins, practising different faiths and believing in varied political ideologies, a chance to live the way they wish to, flourish and pursue their interests. Those of Pakistani origin do not enjoy these liberties any less. They have community functions, religious congregations and political meetings. They openly host and entertain their religious preachers as well.
But these Pakistanis want their ancestral homeland to function like a theocracy. They want their native cousins to follow an orthodox interpretation of religion. Why shouldn’t their native cousins belonging to any faith or subscribing to any political opinion enjoy the same liberties as they do in the west?
The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and author. Email: harris.khalique@gmail.com