Pakistan Officials Visit, Learn About Local Government in Melrose

Let's get one thing straight—Pakistan is not Afghanistan.

That's one of the misconceptions Pakistan officials Altaf Gohar and Shehryar Sikander have cleared up for Americans during their six-week stay in the United States, as part of a program that essentially acts as a study abroad program for Pakistani government professionals.

"Afghanistan is our neighbor, but you cannot say that it is Pakistan—totally different countries," Sikander said.

"They think that we’re living in caves," Gohar added with a laugh.

A simple glance at the two clean-cut men also dispelled other possible preconceived notions ordinary Americans might have about the people of Pakistan.

"People had misconceptions that maybe we’d be here with turbans and a beard, or whatever," Sikander said, laughing again.

The program started in 2010, when the U.S. State Department awarded a grant to the Massachusetts Municipal Association in Boston and the Institute for Training and Development in Amherst to bring 75 young Pakistani government professionals to the U.S.

Gohar, a Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency inspector, and Sikander, superintendent of police of the district of Mangla, Mirpur, in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) state, spent 10 days shadowing Reading town officials and another 10 days in Melrose, learning about local government in the U.S. They also visited New York City and, after they repeatedly implored for the trip, spent a day on Cape Cod, and attended .

Pakistan has been going through a transitional phase since August 2008, Sikander said, when Gen. Pervez Musharraf—as Parliament prepared for impeachment proceedings—resigned as president after seven years.

"It’s a great chance for us to come here and learn about the things you’re practicing over here and replicate the same model—maybe not the same model, but bring some positive changes back," he said. "As we are a developing society, we’re passing through a phase where we're learning to adopt new techniques, new ideas. This was an excellent chance for us to learn from your experience and go back and be a quite different professional and different person, introduce some positive reforms."

Sikander added that Pakistan has a "long history of friendship" with the U.S. since the country gained its independence in 1947, but there are still misconceptions about each country on both sides, and that beyond the professional education, there's an opportunity for a cultural exchange as well.

"We can tell how we live over there and how you people live over here," he said. "When we go back, we can talk to our people. There are misconceptions about different societies that don’t know each other. It’s a great chance to develop person-to-person relationships also, along with the professional relationships."

By The People, For The People

Asked what they've seen so far in the U.S. from a professional standpoint, both men commented on the level of involvement the public has in American government, and the transparency of government.

Sikander cited grand juries, elected local officials and access to public records as examples of public participation. He recalled seeing members of the public speak before town committees in Reading and being able to directly ask officials for answers.

"The main thing we’ve seen over here is if you involve the public, you’ll be finding a lot of things that may be done in a bad manner—you’re eliminating  things from being done, a lot of malpractices you cannot do if you’re responsible to the people," he said. "If you involve the public in your system, your system would automatically get more efficient, the system would be more transparent."

Gohar pointed to the U.S. checks-and-balances system that keeps government orderly, and also noted the amount of information available online, such as publication of bids for municipal contracts, which "lessen the corruption." He also remarked on how transparent government with public involvement engenders volunteerism.

"People are very much loyal to their community," he said. "Even in despite of their jobs, they give time free to the community … because they know they have a say in their affairs."

Looking For Efficiencies

The allocation of resources in the U.S. also impressed both men. Sikander said that he's seen one person "doing the job of a lot of people at the same time, which is not very common in developing countries," where he said departments are often overstaffed.

The system of local government is also underdeveloped in Pakistan, Sikander said, adding that the country is the sixth most populous in the world.

Power is more centralized in Pakistan, Sikander said, with governors of the four provinces—Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa—not elected, but appointed by President Asif Ali Zardari. There's also Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Paksitani-administered portion of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region, from where Sikander hails.

"The person sitting in the provincial capital, they have the say about the things," he said. "In this way, a lot things are left unattended ... unlike the city government, they (the officials) would not be that accessible to the common people of a small town. Maybe a common man may not have that good access to different people and officials. So this is a good model."

Now Pakistan is undertaking reforms to consolidate government operations while building greater public participation, Sikander said, adding that those are universal challenges for developing countries.

Progress has been made, according to Gohar.

"We have an independent judiciary, independent media and people have more access to public records," he said.

Sikander seconded the importance of a free press with access to officials and records, an independent judiciary, and the affect those developments have on Pakistan.

"Now there have been a lot of things that came forward, through printing different stories," he said. "Media has changed our culture a lot. Then we have a real independent judiciary which can take notice anytime and because of it, things have improved a lot in last three, four or even 10 years."

A Familial Feeling—And a Few Misconceptions

Aside from professional development, what have the two men learned about Americans' temperament and manners during their stay?

"We are quite far from each other geographically," Sikander said, "but as people-to-people, there we're not so much."

Gohar said that they've been treated like family, and Americans have been both friendly and respectful, never treating the men as if they're outsiders.

"It’s like at home. We enjoy it very much," he said. "I think it would be a lifetime appreciation being here, and having family-to-family and people-to-people contact with them ... I think it will be long-lasting in our lives, we’ll have a relationship that we develop with the communities that give us more understanding of them."

Sikander admitted that he wasn't necessarily expecting such a response, but has found Americans warmly welcoming him with courtesy and kindness.

"Frankly speaking, in the eastern countries we take ourselves very hospitably, we care about our guests a lot, but what we have seen over where, you people are, if not better, equally good or even better as us dealing with guests," he said. 

Of course, there are a few misconceptions that the men tried to clear up, starting with the specter of terrorism that haunts Americans' perceptions of Muslim countries.

Sikander insisted that problems with terrorism only amounted to a small portion of the Pakistani populace.

"Let me tell you—Pakistan, with 180 million people, hardly there would be some hundreds of people who can be problematic," he said. "That’s the same all over the world. Maybe there would be people in the United States also. Somehow we have been in the headlines because of all the wrong reasons, but that too is because of only 4-5 percent of the people. Not more than that. And that too in a very small area.

"People have met and discussed with us," he continued. "If they knew about Pakistan, they had certain misconceptions about Pakistan as being not a peace-loving country, really. Meeting us and with our friends in people in the towns, I believe that a lot of misconceptions have been cleared."

The two men also visited local high schools and spoke to students about their home country, which Sikander said is diverse, each province having its own particular culture and lifestyle.

They spoke of the natural beauty of their home country: Gohar mentioning the "very scenic areas" in the northern portion of Pakistan, and Sikander noting that Pakistan has "all the four seasons and every sort of geographical area," including six out of the 10 tallest mountains in the world.

Skiander said that "it's quite a modern society, quite a progressive society" both in terms of respect for other countries and religions, and in the standard of living. Mobile phones are as ubiquitous in Pakistan as they are in the U.S., and many young and professional Pakistanis carry laptops.

"You cannot say that all of (Pakistanis) are affluent—we have problems with poverty also, but generally people are maintaining a good lifestyle, good standard," Sikander said. "It’s not that we are living in some sort of caves or whatever it is."

"As we have said," he added, "We’re not developed—but we are developing."