Colours of Pakistan

It is an interesting mix. The place where I work and most definitely where I sit. Every ethnicity is represented and deep in my heart I call the Reporters’ Corner, the ‘Colours of Pakistan’. Why? You’d ask. Well, because my beautiful country is represented by a group of ten reporters at The Express Tribune covering different beats and belonging to different ethnic backgrounds and though I see the men folk most notably lost in their political talk, on ethnic lines I have never seen them crossing the line of respect for the other ethnicities. Not all of them are politically correct, not all of them share the same view but respect for the other it seems is mandatory, though often a pun never goes unattended, it just spins around and stimulates intellectual thinking.

At the corner, the ‘Colours of Pakistan’ discuss anything from the Taliban, to the American people, to the football mania or even phobia for some, to movies and music. Pretty much everything happening under the sun.

The country where ethnic and sectarian riots occur on a routine basis, where a man stands up against another on those same grounds; this mingling at the reporters den is quite an affair to remember and think about. It makes me think about ourselves as a nation, where we seem to have lost respect for the common man on the street, think about the fact that as humans, it would be much better to talk and discuss things, than to physically or verbally abuse.

The ‘Colours of Pakistan’ criticise like they are the true champions of the nation, that one ethnicity is stronger than the other but in the end the hard hitting voice remains of unity under the same flag of green and white.

Yes, it’s a beautiful mix. It’s bright and its very, very colourful. It makes you think. Stimulates one to think about the other. Makes one see the bigger picture too. Sympathy is there and so is empathy. Emotions fight back, they run deep. Definitely leaving a mark and stating ‘blood is thicker than water’. If we could only rise once again as a nation and say to ourselves, “We are actually the true colours of Pakistan, let’s not bring to an end another human life, be it on sectarian or ethnic grounds. Let’s celebrate life, as one would celebrate ones belonging to a different clan or a tribe.” Let’s.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20th, 2010.