17th February 2014 Islamabad, Pakistan
Let me start by saying that I am honoured and proud to have been appointed as the British High Commissioner to Pakistan. I believe I have got one of the best jobs in the British Diplomatic Service. The country is also close to my heart. I have some very old connections with Pakistan. My grandfather […]
28th March 2013 London, UK
I must be in hundreds of photos seen by people around the world. Not because I’m some global celebrity, but because I regularly walk or cycle over the bridge by the Houses of Parliament in London. Each time I do, I end up in the photos of tourists lining up to take pictures of the […]
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28th February 2013 Islamabad, Pakistan
Now, I’m not one who normally gets passionate about sport. I could have been certain that my first blog from Pakistan, where I recently arrived as the High Commission’s new Press Attaché, would not have been about sport. But, I am surprisingly doing just that. When I think of sport in Pakistan, cricket comes into […]
22nd November 2012 Islamabad, Pakistan
Written by an avid cricket fan and guest blogger from the British High Commission in Islamabad: A green cricketing outfield under a clear blue sky, the sound of leather on willow on warm sunny afternoon with a majestic church spire as a backdrop; this can only be a scene from my youthful cricketing days turning out for Wimbledon […]
16th November 2012 London, UK
It was my embarrassment and a Pakistani journalist’s passion for the English Lake District that got me there. I was dressed head to toe in waterproofs, having climbed 500m, and the rain was turning to hail and sleet. The crags in the peaks behind me were being smoothed out by the first snowfalls. In the distance England’s largest […]
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25th September 2012 London, UK
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 […]
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9th August 2012 Islamabad, Pakistan
When visiting my regular family summer holiday spot in North Wales each year as a child, it was unimaginable that one day I would be taking my first (and hopefully not my last) summer holiday in the Baltistan region of Pakistan. Since arriving on my diplomatic posting to Pakistan earlier this year at the British […]
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22nd June 2012 Islamabad, Pakistan
International Inspiration is part of the UK’s legacy programme, and has helped transform millions of lives around the world through the power of sport. On 28 June, 20 International Inspiration leaders, representing the 20 countries where International Inspiration has delivered its projects, will carry the Olympic Torch in Nottingham. Zainab Imran is selected as a […]
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30th May 2012 Islamabad, Pakistan
It is 6.30 am Saturday morning in Lahore, the room service waiter points at the TV news and says “that’s you”. I agree that it is, as footage plays of a meeting I had the day before with Nawaz Sharif, PML-N political leader and twice former Prime Minister of Pakistan, and, Shabaz Sharif, his brother […]
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28th May 2012 London, UK
You’ve seen the photographs of the Prime Ministers outside the door of Number 10 Downing Street. But after the politicians and cameras have left, what does it add up to? I’m one of the behind-the-scenes people in London and Islamabad. You won’t see any of us in the photos, but we’re the ones who made […]
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