When you hear the word Pakistan, what exactly comes to your mind? Now be honest. You would probably think to yourself “Pakistan, isn’t that the country where there are lots of terrorists?” or “Isn’t that one of the poorest or most corrupt countries in the world?”
While there is lots of truth to that, let me tell you about my country. Now, I could go on and on about how and why our country became corrupt and got the reputation it has today, but that’s a topic for another day. We’re very much like you. We go to work, our youth population goes to parties and we celebrate quite a lot of the holidays like you — for example New Year’s, Christmas and Halloween. I want to tell you about what’s going on inside Pakistan, things you won’t hear about in the news, the accomplishments we’ve made.
Now, Pakistan has some of the most intelligent people in the world. We have one of Asia’s best universities, LUMS (The Lahore University of Management Sciences). Pakistani scientists are on the verge of a breakthrough in applied sciences. This scientific team is confident that Pakistan is at the center of the opening of a new scientific era with the discovery of magnet-hydro-tropism. Pakistan’s most celebrated musician and actor, Ali Zafar, is to help judge the $1,000,000 Global Teacher Prize in the United States.
A 14-year-old security researcher named Muhammad Shehzad has been enlisted in the Google Hall of Fame. He reported several weaknesses in Google’s web applications and managed to fix them as well. A team of 14 from Karachi Grammar School in Karachi won the most medals at the Harvard MUN. Pakistan is also home to the second highest mountain in the world, K2.
These are the good things about Pakistan, that you don’t hear in the news so I, as a Pakistani, felt it my duty to tell you that where I come from isn’t entirely a bad place. Yes, there is corruption and there are problems, I’m not denying that. The purpose of this article is to inform you even more about my country in a positive manner.
I hope, after reading this, that whenever you hear Pakistan, you don’t think of a country full of fundamentalists but as a country full of talent and ingenuity as well.