[saghuman]

Everytime I tell someone I am gonna go study in Pakistan, they say, the conditions are very dangerous, theres so much terrorism going on in Pakistan, and its not a safe place. Do you American born Pakistani Med students feel that it is safe to study in Pakistan, and that the goverments and societies unstability does not affect you?

I really need some advice, preferably from an American, because its decision making time, I am an undergrad freshman in US, and I have admission to Punjab Medical College, and Ullama Iqbal Medical College? Going to medical school right away, instead of going thru undergrad is really interesting me right now? I need some good advice?

Please,

Salaam

 

[maik7upurz]

Safety and terrorism and that kind of stuff is the last thing that will affect you. The only danger in pakistan is the political uncertainty which shouldnt affect you too much. If something goes wrong it will affect the whole country but for now things are stable.

Its just blown out of proportion on TV. Heck I bet Baghdad is a friendly neighborhood. I used to see pakistan on tv and think what you thought all my friends were like your crazy blah blah blah I cant even get a friend to come visit here cuz of the bad image Pakistan has. I saw tv in usa and thought Pakistan was dangerous haha but its probably safer than most countries.

 

[MedGrunt]

Hey, welcome to the forum. I can definitely understand your concern. I'm a 1st year American born poor urdu speaking med student in Islamabad.#eek

Pakistan has it's share of danger, but it's really not as bad as you might think. The important thing is to be able to recognize situation that seem sketch(ex: anything political) and avoid it like the plague. While I've been here I've never really felt that I'm in any significant danger. Once you start med school you probably won't be going out in the city too often. I go out to dinner occasionally on the weekends or maybe do some shopping but usually it's just school and back.

Just try to be as cautious as possible. After the Lal Masjid drama I avoided going out to markets and public places as much as possible for a while, but now everything is back to normal for the most part. I'd say that every city has its more dangerous areas that you should try to avoid. You just need to stay up to date with what's going on in the city and stay aware of your surroundings. Once you realize which types of events/places that could easily become dangerous just steer clear from them. Don't join any hardcore political stuff and try to blend in when you go out!

 

[MastahRiz]

...try to blend in when you go out!

That's definitely key.

 

[ali9686]

This msg is in reference to Lahore.

Bro, the only thing you have to worry about is not to get ripped off by the merchants. For some reason they can figure out non-local and the price of the item in interest shoots up 100-200%!!! #baffled

About safety, Lahore is as safe as you can get. Not so much focused on the political scene as Khi and Isb. But Lahore is pretty much a docile city and people are mad friendly. Most of the people here just want to eat, eat, eat, and oh did i mention eat!

Its given that you don't venture out past 2-3am by yourself, but even the late night trips out with cousins and friends were no problem what so ever.

If you plan on driving yourself then a few words of wisdom. (if u get a driver then the same goes for him)
The Cops! they are a bit rude when it comes to foreigners. If you get stopped they tend to give u a hard time but all they want is money. So a senior American told me to keep 200 rups in the car registration booklet. When stopped don't say anything, just say salaam, shake there hand and give them the registration booklet. lol. Usually after 5-10 mins of "official police business" they come back and tell you to be more careful and send you off, of course the money is gone. Happened to me a couple of times when i got pulled over and never had a problem ever again. Its kinda sad but trust me it avoids alot of problems, headaches, and wastage of time when you get a ticket and your registration booklet seized.
The cops usually set up random check points to perform searches for drugs, booze, and weapons. But i don't mind, keeps the streets safe.

Be more than happy to answer any questions about Lahore and KE,

oh by the way its Allama Iqbal Medical College, lol.

 

[taimur]

allama iqbal is in lahore and PMC is in faisalabad....both of these places are relatively safe places...........sometimes people give me funny looks when im speaking english witih my little bro but most of the time they are smiling and sometimes come up to us and try the little english they on us... in both these cities people are only concerned about eating...............id say ud have no problem in pakistan unless u wana go to some isolated place in the frontier area

 

[saim]

thanks guys this also hepled me..........