'Magical year': UK former army general recalls how he 'fell in love with Pakistan'

LONDON: Major general (retd) Seumas Kerr CBE has said he fell in love with Pakistan and it's people when he attended the Pakistan Staff College in Quetta for a year.

Kerr was speaking to Geo News in an exclusive interview after taking over as chairman of the Pakistan society and fondly recalled the time spent in the country. 

He served as a major general in the British Army and retired after 35 years. He said he spent time in Pakistan with his family, where he developed a love and respect for the country and has remained in touch with Pakistanis ever since.

"My godfather went to the Quetta Staff College in 1936. I met Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery as a young boy and he also went to the Staff College Quetta. We ended up discussing Pakistan. I think that fired something in my imagination and I wanted to go," Kerr shared. 

"When I was a young major, the top 10% would get a choice to choose a country to go to and I put Pakistan as my first choice and was delighted to be selected to go there. It was just a magical year. From the moment we arrived we were made to feel welcome. 

"The security constraints were not there at the time as they are now so we travelled all over Pakistan including Lahore, Karakoram Highway, Hunza, Abbottabad, Karachi, Quetta and the Afghan Border. It’s such a beautiful country and we were made to feel welcome everywhere."

The retired general said that the most memorable part of Pakistan remains attached to his time in Quetta. 

"We made great friendships in Quetta. I played a lot of squash, ran a lot, and played a lot of tennis. My wife and I became the Balochistan squash champions of tennis. The most special time was going up the Karakoram Highway, Swat valley, Khyber Pass, Gilgit, Hunza and the Chinese border. I am just so sorry that the rest of the world can’t see that," he said.

He said that the Pakistan experience added a huge value in his life and helped him be a different person. 

"After coming back to the UK it made me realise how fortunate I am. We are in our country that we take for granted. In Quetta at times there were water shortages, we had electricity shortages which we take for granted in this country. I also took away the lesson of strength of a strong family in Pakistan and how families stick together. 

"Yes, we do that here but we lost some of that in the world. I think every country has issues but I think that working together solves those issues. We had probably at least 20 overseas officers and we would work with Pakistani officers as well, you share your experiences and work with each other."

The Pakistan society chairman said that what he loved about Pakistan was its diversity and how each of its provinces are different from each other. 

"The Pakistani dresses are so colourful and the food represents all the cultures there. It has Asian influence; it has outside influence and it is pre-partitioned too. The country has been very welcoming at the same time," the chairman added. 

Speaking about the contributions of over 1.5 million British Pakistanis have made for the country he said: "I don’t think the contribution of British Pakistanis is fully recognised in the UK, the contribution that Pakistanis make in the areas of education, the British Pakistanis are doing very well in schools". 

"I would like to focus on trying to raise the necessary funds for Pakistanis both in the UK and Pakistan who are poor and disadvantaged, in order to provide degrees through the Open University. Sports play a big part in bringing the communities and nations together. 

"There should be closer cultural ties between the UK and Pakistan. We would work towards visit exchanges between the two countries. In our next annual dinner we are keen to invite the King, the President of Pakistan and the Prince Karim Agha Khan," he added.

Seumas is also a visiting Fellow at Durham University. He lives in Sherborne, Dorset and London.