Made in Pakistan: exporting the right image

Brand new bed linen from one of the department stores for which London’s Oxford Street is famous.  Unwrapping the layers of packaging I noticed the label: made in Pakistan.  I wondered if it had come from the factory whose owner I had met in Lahore, where we discussed everything from electricity shortages, to labour law to the impact of international trading laws on Pakistan’s ability to compete and export.

Visiting again, and I went to one of Pakistan’s most ancient sites.

“This is a statue of Buddha in the Greek style” the guide from Taxila Museum told me.  Sure enough, Buddha’s long flowing robes could be nothing but the style of Ancient Greece.  The guide went on to show us statues of Buddha with Chinese influenced faces alongside Christian crosses on the floor tiles of the same period.

These two images stuck in my mind because they seemed so far removed from what I knew my friends in London were seeing of Pakistan that week.  Facebook messages encouraging them to sign a petition to free Rimsha Masih, the teenage girl accused of blasphemy.  Harrowing images on rolling news channels as the scale of the fire in a factory in Karachi became clear.

I can’t pretend to my London friends that the images they see of Pakistan aren’t true.  Since 1988 around 1,000 cases of blasphemy have been lodged, about half of which are against Muslims.  Pakistan has suffered much tragedy, from natural and human-made disasters to terrorism.  So how can I help them to see that there is more to Pakistan than this?

I’ve discovered that many people from Pakistan or connected to Pakistan are asking the same question.  The Telegraph’s Rob Crilly explains why he thinks it matters for the big stuff, and challenges Pakistan to work on its PR machine.  The British Pakistan Foundation has given the diaspora a voice directly with the government of Pakistan to explain why this matters and how they can address it.  Caroline Jaine has been using the arts.  Fellow blogger Helen Chorlton identifies the positive benefits increased tourism could bring.  We’ve been asking British Pakistanis what they would say to speak up for Pakistan in a series of video debates .

The statue of the Buddha I saw in Pakistan was Greek in style partly because Taxila was close to the key trade route of the Silk Road.  The culture and influences of those passing along the Silk Road mixed with the local and caused both to travel far and still leave their traces two centuries later.

The Silk Road has gone, but people are travelling a new route: there are over 1.2 million people of Pakistan origin living in the UK.  There are over 1.4 million journeys by air between the UK and Pakistan each year and trade between the countries is increasing year on year.  They are connections which can benefit both countries.  The UK’s advocacy of greater EU market access for Pakistan will help the factory owner I met in Lahore.  They are also connections which can help people in Pakistan see there is more to the UK than just Buckingham Palace and the visa application process, and my London friends see a fuller picture of Pakistan which includes tragedy and disaster, but so much more.