Returning to Pakistan - A Guide - Lifestyle

Life in Pakistan
This section will be more relevant to the home maker rather than the professional but I believe it is very important since it deals with the day-to-day satisfaction and acceptability of life in Pakistan for wife & kids.

Residence
If you have been living in the suburban United States, you are in for a surprise regardless of where the house is and how much it’s worth. The booming industry of housing in Pakistan is all speculative; there are no fundamental changes in this industry for the last 200 years. The way we build houses in early 19th century, same methods with minor adjustments are still around. There is no skills development in masonry, plumbing, wiring, carpeting, paint, etc. the entire team of contractors and their labor will build the entire house but they will only have a handful of specialized tools to accomplish all their tasks. The entire housing construction doesn’t use as many tools as you find in one aisle in Home Depot. What this does is that the house doesn’t have the level of finishing that we are used to and trying to fix the problems properly takes a lot of time, effort and education of the labor. In the absence of specialized tools the results are still short of satisfaction as there are limits to hand and eye based finishing besides if you are not closely monitoring the labor, the results tend to be disastrous. The neighborhoods is another problem particularly in Karachi with traffic jams, public transport, sewage overflows, power cut-offs within the locality causing unimaginable suffering and frustration. Basic utility aspects of suburban lifestyle in US are missing altogether compounded by the scarcity of water resource and lack of centrally heated/cooled houses. This causes too much dust to settle in and not enough water to keep things constantly cleaned

Servants
The housewives are typically used to taking care of the house themselves in USA. The biggest attraction for them is the availability of labor in Pakistan for cooking, cleaning, driving, grocery, laundry and ironing, etc. I hate to disappoint the hundreds of women I have come across in North America who are always in awe of the women in Pakistan who have hired help but it is true, it is not as rosy as it seems from the outside. First of all, in order to get the house to a level of order and cleanliness as we are used to in North America is very difficult to do just because the system of household was never designed to be run by the lady of the house. The performance of the servant is always going to be below par when compared with a dish washer for example. In order to push them to deliver at an acceptable level, you have to supervise extensively and show them how to do things. The level of personal hygiene is also very rarely acceptable but becomes very important if little kids are going to be in the house. Constant supervision and very close monitoring is absolutely essential when dealing with servants. This makes the perceived free time that looked so obvious from the outside almost impossible to achieve. Another issue mostly with the three main cities, is that of crimes committed by the servants or by their connivance

Handy-man
I purchased split ACs and the delivery and installation was included in the cost. When the labor arrived, they didn’t have the basic tools including a ladder. They said, you are supposed to provide that. This sums up the level of service you can expect. There is very little structure or method to what they do and how they accomplish their desired state. It is hit and trial all over the place with an incorrect fix to an incorrect diagnosis. The problem is that the one category of labor which is involved in this type of handy-man job is day labor and they have no formal training and of course they don’t have the resources or capacity to learn formally. It’s a matter of feeding their kids that night or not. I use them a lot for small tasks but I typically ending up doing things myself and count the payment into charity. The other category actually is a little better financially and typically works at a shop, store or with a contractor. They are better than the day labor but since the employer always squeezes them for time and money, they don’t have specialist tools or training either. No Seth big or small will ever invest in their employees to help them get better or make them more productive. It is really disappointing. Lack of finishing and fine tuning is the standard across the board. Running Around Since the society functions on the sweat of the labor class, anyone who can afford is usually hiring labor to take care of day to day tasks. Since the labor is going to do the running around, the retail market is not designed for the convenience of people like us. The destitute labor is supposed to put in any amount of effort in order to get things done and they do since they don’t have an alternative for their survival. What this does to people like us if we ever go out looking for something more than the bread and breakfast, it takes a laborious amount of effort to find the right shop with the right product. A Saturday off should be the number 1 requirement for anyone coming back to Pakistan. I wish there was a home depot here in Karachi. The products and sections found in home depot will typically take several days and an awful lot of effort to locate the equipment for a simple plumbing, electrical or wood work project across different parts of the city

Political Situation
The recent political situation because of assembly tenure getting completed and Musharraf Vs Bibi Vs Supreme Court complex web of deals and backroom negotiations, it seems that the country is on the cusp of crisis even leading to some kind of civil war. Rest assured it is not going to happen. There can be disturbance here or there but the turmoil that would impact the economy of a city or a region is now understood to be not in the interest of anyone. Besides, there cannot be any mass movement in Pakistan as there is no platform or ideology that can bring everyone on the streets. This will always create an environment of give and take between the major players in all regions, government and political parties. I continue to see a status quo resulting in stability as far as economy is concerned and that is what this article is primarily concerned with. The biggest contributor to this status quo is western interest in Pakistan’s stability and the empowered media and recently awakened Supreme Court. I have moved my family to Pakistan after careful examination of this situation so I am putting exactly as I see it.

Even though this paints a gloomy picture of an otherwise undetected problem area, people with good family structure and understanding of the people helping out in and around the house for decades, a lot of this goes away. You can revisit your scores in social and environmental factors after reading this section. Kids’ schooling is another very important topic for families looking to move back and my advice to them will be summed up in just one sentence. “Find the most expensive school and get your kids enrolled – that’s it”. The country clubs now mushrooming in almost all large cities of Pakistan are actually a good break-away from the daily hassles of life. This is even more important since avenues of family entertainment are extremely limited in Pakistan. These clubs, however, require a one-time life long membership fees that start at 10,000 USD and can go as high as 40,000 USD. If your father has such a membership, you may have easier time getting a membership for your family for a fraction of this cost.