Brown man’s burden

Thousands of expatriate Pakistanis who gathered at the Capital One Arena in Washington last week had all the reasons to rejoice over a yearlong performance of the PTI government.

The American economy is booming, jobs are abundant and – thanks to their favourite party – they have become 40 percent wealthier within a year, relative to their poor cousins in Gujrat and Mardan. The poor cousins, unfortunately, have become poorer by the same proportion during the first post-revolutionary year. Growth rate has halved, inflation has doubled and over a million workers have lost jobs.

Imran Khan, in his address, did not talk about steps he is taking to improve the lot of the poor cousins. He did not recount the promised miracles that have been achieved in twelve months. This did not concern Washington walas, whose lives are firmly tied to dollar and information from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Imran Khan talked about things that could be as exciting as events that used to happen inside the Coliseum. His audience was the Pakistani diaspora, who form an important part of the base of the party, and he knows them better than they know themselves.

Diasporas may have a huge disconnect from the countries they left behind years or decades ago, but they are shaping the destinies of many developing world in ways that could not have been imagined only a decade ago. Without Indian diasporas, perhaps Modi would not be ruling India and without the Pakistani diaspora, Imran Khan would not be the prime minister of Pakistan.

The power of the disapora is most evident in the case of Israel. In fact, due to the West’s refusal to integrate the Jews and the community’s own strong sense of identity, the Jewish people always considered themselves a diaspora who had a homeland in the Middle East. Jews that did not migrate to Israel are now considered the disapora and they exert enormous influence on the mother-ship. Many commentators quip that New York is the real Zion.

But Israel, being a unique colonial experiment, is a different case altogether. In most cases, migration happened from the colonised lands to former colonial countries. Familiar language, culture and education system played a key role in shaping patterns of post-colonial migration.

The diaspora has been a source of foreign exchange, entrepreneurship and knowledge for many countries. Highly skilled Chinese and Indians have played a key role in turning their countries into great success stories of the globalised world. The success of the Indian disapora in the global knowledge economy owes a lot to Nehru’s Brahmanic model of education that prioritised quality higher education over primary and secondary education.

Though this model was consider anti-development for decades, it has served India well during the era of globalization. Pakistan, on the other hand, developed neither primary and skill-based education nor quality higher education. As a result, the Pakistani diaspora is far less represented in powerful positions in the corporate world, academia and the state sector.

The influence of the diaspora in the world of globalization is not limited to knowledge and economy. The diaspora is playing an important role in shaping politics and the political attitudes of the countries they don’t live in. As a Gujarat victim’s relative told the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, nine out of ten dollars spent on financing the massacre in Indian Gujarat came from the US and Europe. This statement may be difficult to prove, because of the secrecy involved in the Hindu Right’s fund gathering abroad. However, several scholars have noted that millions of dollars from non-resident Indians feed ‘the Hindu Right’ in India.

Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP), an organization formed by the Indian diaspora to support their favourite party, worked actively for the BJP in the last general election by raising funds and dispatching volunteers for the election campaign. According to many observers, their support has played a key role in success of Narendra Modi and his brand of politics.

The Indian diaspora has been crucial to the mother country for improving India’s global image and ensuring greater strategic benefits from bilateral relations with countries of their residence. The US–India Civil Nuclear Agreement is seen as an important example of lobbying by non-resident Indians with US lawmakers for pushing the deal.

The Pakistani diaspora may be far less influential in their countries of residence, but this should not stop them from exerting similar influence upon Pakistan. The Pakistani diaspora living in the West is fired up by the enlightenment zeal. Since they live in developed countries, they think they know how a country can be developed. This has been a constant line of Imran Khan himself, who, according to his own claims, learnt comparative development by playing cricket for half of the year in Britain for many years.

Pakistan’s diaspora party has been in power for a year and we are nowhere near our American dream. In fact, we have not even entered in the REM sleep mode where dreams are generated. Highly qualified expatriates have not returned in droves to change the destiny of the country. Even our beloved Jheel Wala Doctor has refused to return. They have not contributed zillions of dollars as the PTI had promised. In fact, they did not respond to Imran Khan’s call to contribute a thousand dollars each to build the Saqib Nisar Dam.

However, the services of the diaspora to revolution in Pakistan must be recognised. According to news reports, the government has decided to allow dual-national Pakistanis to contest elections in the country. At present, Pakistan’s constitution does not allow holders of foreign passports to hold public offices. How the government plans to bring about such an amendment in the current political environment is not clear. As other political parties are not expected to support this move, the PTI can claim that only it represents expatriates and no one else deserves their dollars or tweets.

Only last year, the ECP had been asked by the Supreme Court to initiate the process of registering overseas Pakistanis as a pilot project to allow them to vote in the by-elections which were to be held in 37 constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies. However, only 7,419 overseas Pakistanis got themselves registered and when the by-elections were held, a little over 6,000 exercised their right of vote through e-ballot.

Despite huge contributions made by non-resident Indians, India does not allow its citizens to hold any other passport. A non-resident Indian, who holds an Indian passport (only), can vote in their hometown through postal ballot after going through a complex process of registering as an Overseas Voter.

We have never heard the prime minister talk about the 12 million women whose names are missing from the electoral roles. They have no Twitter accounts, can’t donate anything to any party and can’t turn up to cheer dear leader at the arena. When they join a dharna, they have to be paid a daily stipend. Their loyalties are fickle and can shift with the loyalties of their electable patrons. Better to groom their patrons, the sugar mill wallahs, rather than worrying about the rights of missing voters.

The writer is an anthropologist and development professional.

Email: zaighamkhan@yahoo.com

Twitter: @zaighamkhan