Expatriate Pakistanis react with Passion

Ever since the Massacre of May 12th in Karachi which sadly claimed the lives of over 50 people, the world is abuzz with astonished outrage. The people living in Pakistan naturally go through hell with the day-to-day incidents but what people often tend to forget are the emotions of those Pakistanis living outside Pakistan who feel helpless and are unable to do anything sitting across the world, they filter through each news item, they hear every TV and radio story with apt attention in hope of getting a glimmer of hope from their motherland.

Having lived in the US for three years I know the emotions that go through when your city is ablaze and you have loved ones sitting huddled in a room afraid. Imagine their heart pounding reactions when on May 12 they start hearing of state sponsored massacre, they hear that the police and rangers are sitting dribbling their fingers while gangsters go on a killing spree, its a nightmare we in Karachi don’t ever want to re-live and naturally expatriate Pakistanis don’t ever want to repeat.

There is little doubt to the fact that these people are far more patriotic then we here in Pakistan can ever be, they have to identify themselves as Pakistanis on a daily basis and most are proud of it (unlike a handful of rotten eggs) and are often questioned by foreign nationals on the unrest in their homeland. These expatriate Pakistanis then consider themselves as ambassadors of Pakistan and try their best to put up a ‘good face’ for the sake of Pakistan image.

The incident that happened on May 12th was one which stunned everyone beyond belief, a good way to judge the emotions would be to listen to a radio talk show of ABCN Chicago (from Pakistan access it via 1590 WONX) aired immediately after the 5/12 Massacre, quite literally was a shockwave echoed across the globe

The following week ABCN Chicago (Urdu Talk Radio Chicago) covered in detail the impact of media and blogging on the recent political unrest in Pakistan and invited the prominent blogger Adil Najam of Pakistaniat.com and later he was joined by Talat Hussain of AAJ tv, to shed light on the issue. You can hear the entire show in the following clip

All heard and said, there is little doubt that expatriate Pakistanis remain as emotionally involved as physically possible, they see their country burning and want to guide it towards the best direction possible. But do our leaders care?

Courtesy: Blogiyaat