Islamabad Travel Forum

Hi

We are British ex-pats who are thinking of returning to live in Pakistan in the near future. we have two young children and I am worried about the issues of kidnap and ransom in Pakistan as I have heard a lot of this happens,also whether we will be able to fit in. Can anyone tell me what it is like living in Islamabad and how good the amenities and services are. Generally in the UK we are seeing negative issues coming out of Pakistan however I am trying to be open minded and positive in the light of the problems facing Pakistan in general. Any advice is appreciated.

Thankyou

You are one brave soul . Good luck to you !!!

Salut,

Islamabad, the well planned capital city of Pakistan, so I don't think that you'd face any problem there, in terms of schooling, services or safety, it's a beautiful city with its lush green Margalla hills in the surrounding.

It's true that Pakistan's always with a rock bottom position not only in the UK media but other western media channales as well, looking for some bad news, that's very unfortunate, there's too much to explore in Pakistan, either northern lush green valleys, snow capped mountains or the sandy desrets of south with their ancient cultural diversities.

It's good to know that you're open minded, thses days, actually we need people like you, who dare to do the things in such a way.

Almost all the offices of the dipolmats, embassies, ex-pats located here, so you'll meet hude western community here.


And don't listen to the red herrings of the media.


Tres bon voyage,

Imran Schah
Peshawar.

Hello!
See Islamabad in a nutshell is not that bad and the various level of services available there are quite decent to say the least. However as you aware there was a major incident about a mosque in the area which resulted in a stand-off between the government and the people inside. Anyways now that is over, things are peaceful once again.
Kidnap and ransom are very rare and those too dont take place anywhere, there are isolated incidents but if one exercises caution and common sense while travelling away from the city all is fine.
Islamabad life is generally very peaceful and easy-going and the way the city is built is quite pleasing to the eye.

Hope that answers your question.

best regards,

Zeeshan

Hi

Moved from Denmark to Islamabad 5 years back and it's probably the best decision of my life
1. Good descent schools are easy to find. Allow some time for the kids to adopt but (private) education at least to A-level/pre-univsersity is very good. Tuition fee around 60-90 USD/month
2. Health: I would suggest www.shifa.com.pk. Cosmetic surgery is reasonable compared to abroad and quite a few men come from abroad for treatment.
3. Safety/security: Never felt unsafe in Pakistan and Islamabad is probably safer than cities of a similar size around the world. We've got four kids and the visit friend on odd hours. Never been an issue.
4. Ransom/kidnap: Extremely rare in Islamabad unless you have an ongoing dispute with some criminal elements - I would anyway suggest you stay away from those kind of guys :-)
5. Power-failure is relatively rare, especially in F sectors. Would only last for around 30 minutes.
6. Good traffic network but expect some problems in certain areas during heavy rains.
7. Good restaurant, gyms and relatively reasonable sports facilities (compared to abroad) but apart from lacking quite a few things: good descent bowling, good cinemas, shopping malls (though plenty of good shopping areas).
8. A very beautiful location, green city, pleasant wheather and good access to the rest of the country.

What still irritates me about Islamabad even after five years is an un-orderly traffic (it's really dangerous if you are not alert all the time) and lack of maintenance of common areas like shops, parking lots, lack of bins etc etc.

Moving to Islamabad may prove to me much more interesting than you think and less problematic than you might fear. It's very nice, peaceful city with a good mix of locals, returning ex-pats and foreigners.

Unfortunately BBC and CNN does not by any means depict any true picture of Islamabad even when things are really at their worst for instance during the Lal Mosque issue. Nearly all my patients come from abroad (mostly UK and Scandinavia) for hair transplantation at my clinic in Islamabad and some worry if they as Westerns are safe in Islamabad. Once they are here they can hardly imagine that it's the same Islamabad that they seen on the news!

Please do write if you need any further or specific information on Islamabad.

Dr. Hussain

Two young children!

Forgot to mentioned that my daughter was 11 and the eldest son was 8 when we moved to Islamabad. They did not know English and the Danish schools are very un-disciplined. They both had some problems adopting to the schools and it took them nearly a year to start feeling comfortable and making friends. Maybe a factor was that they were very close to their cousins whom they missed very much. Now my daughter recommends Islamabad to her friends back in Denmark :-)
The two younger boys at 4 and 18 months had no problems what so ever. The youngest remembers Pakistan several time during our summer 2 months holidays in Northern Europe ever year :-)

Dr. Hussain

Dear Dr Hussain

Thankyou dearly for your reassuring email. It is very positive to hear something nice about Pakistan especially from a person who has already relocated. So far everyone we have spoken to, including family are negative and scare mongering us about returning to our homeland (my parents left 40 years ago and I have lived in the UK all my life), however me and my husband feel it is time to make that journey back and give our children the choice and experience of both worlds and most importantly the education, morals and values that are often lacking in the West.
Thanks again and the best of luck.