Daily Times

In 2014, Turkey received 41 million tourists visiting the country. Compared to Turkey, India receives about seven million tourists annually and Pakistan receives about one million. What is it about Turkey that makes it such an attractive proposition for tourists? The history of the land that is Turkey goes back millennia even if Turks are of later import. The remarkable confluence of Greek civilisation, Christian past and Ottoman Empire has given it a magnificent heritage. It is a remarkable heritage but one must remember that, so far as confluences go, of religions, civilisations and even continents none has a greater claim on such diverse heritage than Pakistan itself. From the Indus Valley civilisation to the Gandhara civilisation, Alexander and Asoka down to the Mughals, the imprint of ancient Greece, Persia, the Turks, Mongols, Afghans and the British is all around us. We also have the world’s most diverse relief from the Himalayan range, the K2 down to the beautiful coastline from Karachi to Gwadar.

Yet, despite this magnificent heritage and history, so formidable is the challenge of actually visiting Pakistan as a tourist that we have never been able to capitalise on what providence has given us. Lonely Planet wrote about Pakistan in 2010: “Pakistan has been on the brink of being tourism’s ‘next big thing’ for more years than we care to remember. It is a destination that has so much to offer visitors; drive the Karakoram Highway through the endless peaks of the Karakoram Mountains, or wander through the architectural glories of the former Mughal capital Lahore, the ancient bazaars of Quetta or the cosmopolitan streets of Karachi. But every time the country seems to be gearing up to refresh the palates of travelers jaded with last year’s hip destination, world media headlines send things off the rails — again. No matter the attractions, tourism in Pakistan has always been something of a hard sell.” It is not just the headlines. Our own so-called intelligentsia creates such foreboding about the country that no one would want to visit it. I have been fortunate enough to travel around the world and one thing I have constantly realised is that it is not that Pakistan is just so insufferable compared to the rest of the world but that we spend a lot of time and energy proving to the world that we are insufferable. It is the vicious cycle of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The point about tourism and our inability to build on what providence has given us is part of the bigger point: the lack of national confidence that the Turks possess and we do not. At some level we are ashamed of being Pakistanis. Decades of subliminal messaging by Pakistan’s detractors as well as our own crimes of which there is a multitude has turned those who should have been the vanguard of nation building in Pakistan against the country. Consequently, in Pakistan, you have two distinct groups: one group that harps on about how Pakistan should not have existed, that it was a mistake and that Pakistan is doomed to failure. The second group is one that is so self-righteously obsessed with religion that in doing so it has created numerous fetters on national progress. It has thus become a perpetual faceoff between the ‘beghairats’ (immoral) and ‘ghairatmands’ (virtuous) of Pakistan; the beghairats celebrate every failure of the country as some sort of a personal victory and the ghairatmands see failure elsewhere, their parameters of success are inextricably linked to what women wear or do not wear. These two groups have reduced the country to a hellhole.

So, how do we turn around the global perception about our country? First of all, we need to put our own house in order. This requires the state to play a definitive nation-building role and by this one does not mean the kind of social engineering undertaken by General Zia’s regime. We need to rebuild our image internally first and nothing can do that better than doing things right. This requires reversing the social engineering done by General Zia. There was a lot of talk for years about projecting the softer image of Pakistan but first we must convince ourselves that we have a softer side to us. Where is the projection of our magnificent art, culture and dance? Nawaz and Shahbaz do not care much for that stuff. It has now been 10 years since Basant was banned in Lahore over the flimsy excuse that some irresponsible people used metal glass wire. The correct approach should have been to apprehend the offenders but, instead, we banned the whole event. The real reason behind the ban was not loss of life — that is something we are perfectly alright with given what has happened in Model Town, Gujranwala, Daska and countless other places. The real reason was the mullahs who cause night terrors to even the mighty Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab.

The Sharif brothers should look to Turkey for answers. Merely copying their Metro buses is not going to cut it. The economic potential that will be unleashed with the China-Pakistan Economic corridor can be trebled if Pakistan pays attention to its magnificent heritage and tourism potential. Will the brothers grow a backbone though and stand up to the mullahs? Unfortunately, their track record does not inspire much confidence. However, remember that Pakistan’s supposed failures are the failures of its cowardly ruling class and never the country itself. Sooner or later, Pakistanis will become aware of the malaise and realise the potential of the country we have taken for granted and written off as a failure.

The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore and the author of the book Mr Jinnah: Myth and Reality. He can be contacted via twitter @therealylh and through his email address yasser.hamdani@gmail.com