SINCE Pakistanis always want to stay a step or two ahead of the competition, not to mention law, hundreds of them have been crossing into Canada all along the thousands of miles of border the two countries share. There are those who are crossing legally. The more adventurous are crossing commando style

The Immigration and Naturalisation Department (INS), the current Pakistani equivalent of the Big Bad Bear, is not without a sense of humour despite the fact that the baleful shadow of its founding father, the later Edgar J. Hoover, who kept files on everybody and was a secret cross-dresser, still hangs over it. The INS has announced that illegal immigrants are not required to register. In the Department’s clipped officialese, the answer to the question, “What if my last entry into the United States was not legal, do I have to register?” is, “No. The current registration requirements apply only to aliens who have been inspected by an immigration officer and admitted to the United States.”

Illegal Pakistanis, whose number is said to be legion, can, therefore, relax. Why they are running scared, I am unable to understand. They continue to have the run of the place. They can go where they like and get any of the thousands of jobs where you are paid cash under the counter when nobody is looking. It is true you do not earn what you would have earned had you been legal, but earn enough you do. Admittedly, you do not make the kind of loot that will buy you a Corvette or one of those sleek two-seater Audis, Mercs or BMWs, but food is cheap in this country and bus rides do not cost all that much. Old bangers can be had for next to nothing and sometimes people pay you money to drive their old car away. I have seen cars on the road being driven by our Latin American and South Asian brothers which defy all known laws of physics and dynamics. Gas, which is what the Americans say when they mean petrol, is cheap. It is certainly cheaper here than it is in Pakistan where upping the price is one of Mr Shaukat Aziz’s weekend hobbies.

However, since Pakistanis always want to stay a step or two ahead of the competition, not to mention law, hundreds of them have been crossing into Canada all along the thousands of miles of border the two countries share. There are those who are crossing legally, that is through a border check post. The more adventurous are crossing commando style. I am sure some of them carry in their wallets pictures of the nation’s first commando head of state, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, President and Chief of Army Staff until further orders, which, needless to say, are his own.

The Canadians are said to be baffled. One Pakistani who had asked a friend to drop him at one of the crossing points in upstate New York, being a believer in the slogan “See North America on foot”, waited patiently for his turn which came some hours later. The American side let him through when he said that he was seeking political asylum in Canada. The Canadian border guards asked him where he was headed. He replied that he was a political refugee. And why was he a political refugee, they wanted to know? Because he feared persecution in America. But how had he landed in America in the first place, they asked? He had escaped from Pakistan where he feared political persecution. When he was asked when he had escaped from Pakistan, he said it was during the rule of Nawaz Sharif who was not a good man, though he built the Motorway, and who was out to get him.

But there had been two changes of government since, the Canadian official, who was not as uninformed as he looked, pointed out. True indeed, but he feared persecution from the “military types.” But there was now a civilian prime minister in Pakistan, he was reminded. That was the only time, our friend laughed. “You must be joking. Gen. Musharraf is king, was king, will be king.”

He was admitted and is now waiting for an immigration hearing later this month.

Pakistanis are enterprising people, and that is the truth. When I was the Pakistan embassy’s counsellor in Ottawa in the mid-1970s, a young fellow walked into my room and asked for a new passport as he had lost the one he had. “I will give you a new passport if you tell me how many passports you already have?” I suggested. “You promise,” he said after giving the matter some thought. “I couldn’t be more serious,” I replied. “Well, four but they are all useless,” he said. I better end the story here otherwise I may have the ISI at my tail for issuing unauthorised passports.
 

Khalid Hasan is a Washington based eminent journalist and columnist of international repute.