Safety in Pakistan

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!

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.