My Observations Of KPK..#MirMak
By. Mir Mohammad Alikhan
I know many of you have asked me to write my observations of KPK as i have just returned. Another thing many of you are also expecting that i write the way i always have, without any party lines. I belong to no party and have no political affiliation but i appreciate any party doing good for Pakistan. I do not look at Lahore as anything outside Pakistan, thus i appreciate the amazing development Lahore has witnessed. Appreciating Lahore does not make me part of PML N and pointing out the wrongs of PML N does not make me their opposing party either. We all have to appreciate whoever is doing good for Pakistan and encourage them. Nobody can be perfect and only do good, that happens in story books not in real life but if a leader is doing good for Pakistan, at least appreciate that good before pointing out his wrongs. I have no love lost for IK or PTI but it was my first time in 16 years to visit Peshawar and i had my eyes, ears, mind all attentive to see what is happening in this great province. It will be a bit long of an article but i will break it into three parts... First the People of KPK..
The People Of KPK.
I have no words for the hospitality and decency shown to me from even the strangers on the street. The ones who knew nothing about me or my background except the fact that i was from Karachi. An Urdu speaking person from Karachi was given so much respect and shown so much hospitality that all the political myths of a certain party in Karachi were thrown out of the window. What i had always believed about the great Pakhtuns had come true in reality, their simplicity, their love for peace, their efforts to uphold and preserve their centuries old traditions of loving their guests. No matter where i went and no matter whom i met, i received nothing but love and respect. So much so that when the waiters at the hotel openly refuse to take the tips because you are a guest from Karachi. When the KPK police stops us on our way back to Islamabad before we enter the motorway and finds out that we are from Karachi, yes they check the car and do their duty first but a few minutes after checking the car they become our friends and we exchange numbers and take pictures and they insist that we go for dinner with them to their homes. Nowhere did i see a single weapon being carried in public. I did not see a single 4x4 blazing through with other 4x4s full of guards following it. I have seen more weapons and guards in Karachi than an ammunition depot. I saw immense respect for the pedestrians on the street by the drivers who stopped and let them cross the roads. I was expecting gun carrying, shawl wrapped around the faces, hoards of Taliban in convoys in Peshawar and what i saw was, nimble, humble, simple people without any weapons except the most lethal weapon of all to disarm your best enemy...their smiles.
Business Environment.....
It needs great improvement. Yes after years of destruction, mayhem, chaos and terrorism, i was not surprised. The commercial areas needed improvement. But when i spoke to the common vendors on the street they were happy that improvement is coming compared to the days of terrorism. There were more buyers than earlier i was told. Now to the professional businesses...I saw a will within the youth and the older crowd to excel. A will full of strength and hard work. I met the head of the IT Departments, Heads of Entrepreneurship studies at the universities, i met the Economic Zone team, i met the MD of KPITB, and the first thing i found was that the post matched the experience of the people. The MD KPTIB was a Ph.D, a young Ph.D in computer field with years of overseas experience The KPK Economic Zone team was comprised of Bankers, Financial Experts and people who left their cozy jobs in the private sectors to contribute to their province. I also saw a great number of students who already have started their ventures while in school instead of waiting for that "Perfect Funding". There were so many of those start ups who did not seek funding or make excuses and decided to do business with whatever little they had. So much so that a kid started a shoe business online with just 10,000 Rupees and does over a crore in business now. But KPK needs improvement in this arena. KPK needs to speed up the process of revival of business environment even faster. KPK needs to bring in outside advisors and consultants to the economic zones and IT boards to give them a different perspective. More participation is required from people outside KPK and outside Pakistan. A concerted media campaign with facts needs to be launched to promote business in KPK.
Now The Government Performance...
I think many of you were just waiting for this part of the article. Lol. I did not meet a single government official on purpose because i did not want their perspective. I did not want "Them" to convince me that their performance is great. I wanted to gather this data of opinions from the common people of KPK. I wanted to mingle with people on the streets, at the universities, at the restaurants, the drivers, the workers..the common people of Peshawar who will speak honestly. And that i did. Before i go on to tell you what they said, i would also like to tell you that i did not see any amazing infrastructure work screaming improvement in my ears. I was not interested in that much to begin with because to me infrastructure development is great and needed but what is needed more is the improvement in the fields of Health & Education for the common people. So my questions to the people were mostly concentrated on these two fields. And let me tell you without mincing my words that "EVERY" and i mean "EVERY" person i spoke to was all praise for the improvements in the health sector. So much so that they were telling me that they would rather go to a government hospital then to go to the private hospital. And before i asked them these questions i tricked them into telling me which party they belong to. About half of them who praised the amazing improvements in the health sector were not PTI voters. Except one, and i mean only one out of 3 to 400 people i spoke to in groups, all praised the improvement in health care. Secondly on their list of praises was that the education system is getting better. Government schools are adopting the same curriculum as the private schools. Teachers are showing up on time. Qualification of the teachers has improved a lot.
So the 2 subjects i spoke to people about, health and education, i give KPK passing marks with flying colors. Infrastructure needs improvement. Business environment needs much more improvement. But all in all i see KPK on its way to improvement. However slow it may be in other fields, other than health and education but i see improovements.
Now to all the PTI voters, do not for a second think that i agree with IK for his handling of political affairs on a national level. Do not think that i appreciate him changing his stances, recent one, going back to the parliament while calling it illegal for years. I do not appreciate leaders changing their stances. Whatever his political strategies are, are his to handle what comes his way is his business though, my business is the people of Pakistan and their improvement, whichever leader it comes from as long as it comes. So KPK passes in my opinion as a government in the fields of education and health. The rest Allah knows better.
My Observations Of KPK..#MirMak
By. Mir Mohammad Alikhan
I know many of you have asked me to write my observations of KPK as i have just returned. Another thing many of you are also expecting that i write the way i always have, without any party lines. I belong to no party and have no political affiliation but i appreciate any party doing good for Pakistan. I do not look at Lahore as anything outside Pakistan, thus i appreciate the amazing development Lahore has witnessed. Appreciating Lahore does not make me part of PML N and pointing out the wrongs of PML N does not make me their opposing party either. We all have to appreciate whoever is doing good for Pakistan and encourage them. Nobody can be perfect and only do good, that happens in story books not in real life but if a leader is doing good for Pakistan, at least appreciate that good before pointing out his wrongs. I have no love lost for IK or PTI but it was my first time in 16 years to visit Peshawar and i had my eyes, ears, mind all attentive to see what is happening in this great province. It will be a bit long of an article but i will break it into three parts... First the People of KPK..
The People Of KPK.
I have no words for the hospitality and decency shown to me from even the strangers on the street. The ones who knew nothing about me or my background except the fact that i was from Karachi. An Urdu speaking person from Karachi was given so much respect and shown so much hospitality that all the political myths of a certain party in Karachi were thrown out of the window. What i had always believed about the great Pakhtuns had come true in reality, their simplicity, their love for peace, their efforts to uphold and preserve their centuries old traditions of loving their guests. No matter where i went and no matter whom i met, i received nothing but love and respect. So much so that when the waiters at the hotel openly refuse to take the tips because you are a guest from Karachi. When the KPK police stops us on our way back to Islamabad before we enter the motorway and finds out that we are from Karachi, yes they check the car and do their duty first but a few minutes after checking the car they become our friends and we exchange numbers and take pictures and they insist that we go for dinner with them to their homes. Nowhere did i see a single weapon being carried in public. I did not see a single 4x4 blazing through with other 4x4s full of guards following it. I have seen more weapons and guards in Karachi than an ammunition depot. I saw immense respect for the pedestrians on the street by the drivers who stopped and let them cross the roads. I was expecting gun carrying, shawl wrapped around the faces, hoards of Taliban in convoys in Peshawar and what i saw was, nimble, humble, simple people without any weapons except the most lethal weapon of all to disarm your best enemy...their smiles.
Business Environment.....
It needs great improvement. Yes after years of destruction, mayhem, chaos and terrorism, i was not surprised. The commercial areas needed improvement. But when i spoke to the common vendors on the street they were happy that improvement is coming compared to the days of terrorism. There were more buyers than earlier i was told. Now to the professional businesses...I saw a will within the youth and the older crowd to excel. A will full of strength and hard work. I met the head of the IT Departments, Heads of Entrepreneurship studies at the universities, i met the Economic Zone team, i met the MD of KPITB, and the first thing i found was that the post matched the experience of the people. The MD KPTIB was a Ph.D, a young Ph.D in computer field with years of overseas experience The KPK Economic Zone team was comprised of Bankers, Financial Experts and people who left their cozy jobs in the private sectors to contribute to their province. I also saw a great number of students who already have started their ventures while in school instead of waiting for that "Perfect Funding". There were so many of those start ups who did not seek funding or make excuses and decided to do business with whatever little they had. So much so that a kid started a shoe business online with just 10,000 Rupees and does over a crore in business now. But KPK needs improvement in this arena. KPK needs to speed up the process of revival of business environment even faster. KPK needs to bring in outside advisors and consultants to the economic zones and IT boards to give them a different perspective. More participation is required from people outside KPK and outside Pakistan. A concerted media campaign with facts needs to be launched to promote business in KPK.
Now The Government Performance...
I think many of you were just waiting for this part of the article. Lol. I did not meet a single government official on purpose because i did not want their perspective. I did not want "Them" to convince me that their performance is great. I wanted to gather this data of opinions from the common people of KPK. I wanted to mingle with people on the streets, at the universities, at the restaurants, the drivers, the workers..the common people of Peshawar who will speak honestly. And that i did. Before i go on to tell you what they said, i would also like to tell you that i did not see any amazing infrastructure work screaming improvement in my ears. I was not interested in that much to begin with because to me infrastructure development is great and needed but what is needed more is the improvement in the fields of Health & Education for the common people. So my questions to the people were mostly concentrated on these two fields. And let me tell you without mincing my words that "EVERY" and i mean "EVERY" person i spoke to was all praise for the improvements in the health sector. So much so that they were telling me that they would rather go to a government hospital then to go to the private hospital. And before i asked them these questions i tricked them into telling me which party they belong to. About half of them who praised the amazing improvements in the health sector were not PTI voters. Except one, and i mean only one out of 3 to 400 people i spoke to in groups, all praised the improvement in health care. Secondly on their list of praises was that the education system is getting better. Government schools are adopting the same curriculum as the private schools. Teachers are showing up on time. Qualification of the teachers has improved a lot.
So the 2 subjects i spoke to people about, health and education, i give KPK passing marks with flying colors. Infrastructure needs improvement. Business environment needs much more improvement. But all in all i see KPK on its way to improvement. However slow it may be in other fields, other than health and education but i see improovements.
Now to all the PTI voters, do not for a second think that i agree with IK for his handling of political affairs on a national level. Do not think that i appreciate him changing his stances, recent one, going back to the parliament while calling it illegal for years. I do not appreciate leaders changing their stances. Whatever his political strategies are, are his to handle what comes his way is his business though, my business is the people of Pakistan and their improvement, whichever leader it comes from as long as it comes. So KPK passes in my opinion as a government in the fields of education and health. The rest Allah knows better.
