Rallying the diaspora

VIEW: Rallying the diaspora —Dr Mohammad Taqi

Daily Times

January 17,2010

Painting the current war as just the Pashtuns’ war might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It compartmentalises and isolates the Pashtuns even from their direct neighbours in Peshawar, Kohat and DI Khan. It is our war — of the Pashtuns, Hindko and Farsi speakers of Peshawar, Hazara-wals, Chitralis, the Shiite of Kurram and Barelvis of Swat. It is as much a Punjabi, Baloch or a Sindhi war

One freezing night in January 1948, a woman landed in New York on a campaign to raise funds for the state of Israel and its armed forces. She had no winter clothing on, carried only a handbag and a single ten-dollar bill in her pocket. When asked by the customs official how she planned to manage here in the US, she replied: “I have family here!”

When Golda Meir left the US, she had collected $ 50 million — twice her original target, ten times the demand of their resistance officials and three times the Saudi oil revenues for 1947. The diaspora had delivered — but only when rallied by a determined leadership.

The overseas Pakistanis have pumped in about $ 40 billion over the last nine years into the Pakistani economy — three times more per annum than what the Kerry Lugar Law will ever deliver.

Unlike the Kerry Lugar Law, however, no strings are attached to these remittances because the intended beneficiaries are families, friends and communities back home or, as the Americans would say, our loved ones.

The Pakistani expatriates have also remained attuned to the natural and man-made disasters in Pakistan. Whether it was the 2005 earthquake, the 2007 Balochistan floods or the displaced persons of Malakand, the overseas Pakistanis have opened their hearts and wallets upon the motherland’s call. Many came in physically to assist and others contributed financially and materially.

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