When the New Statesman said they were running a themed week of posts on “transport”, the idea didn’t instantly grab me, but in the end, I really enjoyed writing this piece about travelling around Pakistan by car. It starts with an account of the time I got lost in a militarised zone:
We are driving along the highway, a big, multi-laned road that could be in any major European country, when we realise we’ve missed the turn for Attock. There is nowhere to turn off the highway for miles; by the time we finally manage to get off the road and drive back the way we came, it is getting dark. I tweet an inane joke about being lost in north-western Pakistan. A response comes back: “I’m not sure you want to be roaming around that area at this time of night.”
As well as this, I’ve been contributing to lots of Monocle radio shows. The most recent include this on the indictment of Pervez Musharraf for the murder of Benazir Bhutto, and this on John Kerry’s visit to Pakistan. I also discussed the Musharraf case on LBC earlier in August (no podcast available).
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