Since 1947, people from across the globe have chosen to make Pakistan their home, drawn by its rich culture, stunning landscapes, and the warmth of its people. Through resilience, contribution, and adaptation, they have become integral to the nation’s fabric, leaving indelible marks on its communities and industries.

From the birth of Pakistan in 1947 to today, people from many countries made the bold choice to settle in Pakistan and, in doing so, became integral to the nation’s fabric through their contributions, resilience, and love for this land. 
Some just came to visit and fell in love with the cultural diversity, the extraordinary landscapes, and, most of all, the hospitality and generosity of the people. For some, they saw ways to contribute to society through education, healthcare, community welfare, and work for the environment and wildlife. Some came because they married Pakistanis and then saw how they could make meaningful contributions through entrepreneurial businesses, increasing skills and employment for locals. Everyone has a different story of why they came and why they stayed. 
No matter the reason, moving to a new country is challenging, regardless of where you go. Millions of people around the world have discovered that, after the initial excitement wears off, relocating to a new country is not always what they expected. Assimilating into a different culture and system is hard. And often foreigners are treated with an element of suspicion because of their different ways and the countries from which they come. But in time, mostly their lives settle into the culture of their adopted land but always keeping a piece of their homeland in their heart.
After Partition, numerous non-Muslim foreigners who were stationed in British India moved across to Pakistan. Some were already here, posted in cities like Peshawar and Rawalpindi, and chose to remain. These included British and European civilians who worked in the bureaucracy, and missionaries who had run schools in British India. Other early arrivals came directly to Pakistan from their home countries and stayed most of their lives. To this day, there are foreigners who are choosing Pakistan as their home, and their stories are often inspirational. But first, it is some of the earlier arrivals that we look at in this article and their extraordinary contributions to a new nation. Others and more recent arrivals will be covered in part two of this story.
Amongst those who came when Pakistan was in its infancy were some remarkable people, including three extraordinary women who stayed for 60 years, and others who left an indelible mark on the nation through their commitment to education and health, their resilience and courage, and their love of the people. Their legacies live on to this day. 

After Partition, numerous non-Muslim foreigners who were stationed in British India moved across to Pakistan. Some were already here, posted in cities like Peshawar and Rawalpindi and chose to remain. These included British and European civilians who worked in the bureaucracy, and missionaries who had run schools in British India.

One of the early arrivals was Jennifer Musa Qazi. Born in Tarbert in the beautiful green County of Kerry in Ireland on November 11, 1917, Bridget Jennifer Wren, the woman who became known by her two nicknames as “Mummy Jennifer” and the “Irish Queen of Balochistan”, had no idea when she set off to study as a nurse in Oxford that she was destined to spend 60 years of her life in the wilds of Balochistan in the small town of Pishin not far from the Afghanistan border. Hers is the story of an inspirational, remarkable woman who dedicated her life to the betterment of her community through education, social work, and politics.

 In 1939, while studying at Oxford, she met Qazi Muhammad Musa from a political family in Balochistan, the eldest son of Qazi Jalaluddin, the hereditary Qazi (Chief Judge) of Kandahar and brother of Qazi Muhammad Isa, a prominent activist in the Pakistan Movement. Jennifer Musa took the name Jehan Zeba and married Qazi Musa in 1940 and had a son, Ashraf Jehanghir Qazi. Shortly after Pakistan gained independence in 1947, the family moved to Pakistan, firstly to Karachi and then in 1949, they moved to Qazi Musa’s ancestral home in Pishin, where his mother lived until she passed away in 1954. As the eldest son he inherited the home and after his passing, it was gifted to his wife, Jennifer Musa. 

Jennifer Musa chose to live most of her life in a harsh environment thousands of miles from the place where she was born. She remained in Balochistan for six decades, refusing to leave even when the neighbouring Afghan province of Kandahar was overrun by Taliban insurgents.

Although, today, Balochistan is fraught with violence, radicalisation and conservatism, Pishin was then a cocoon of modernity like other colonial towns in Pakistan until the late 1970’s and the Zia era. Clothes were whatever you chose including dresses and skirts, and clubs, polo, picnics and mixed gatherings were all a normal part of life. The remote location and elements of ancient tribal culture must have been a shock at first but Jennifer Musa was a woman of steel, and she set about making a meaningful life of social work in the community.  
Tragically, her husband was killed in a car accident in 1956, leaving her alone to raise their only son. She chose to stay at their home in Pishin rather than return to Ireland and continue contributing to her community. It can’t have been easy, but Jennifer Musa was not someone who could easily be pushed around. She loved her life in Pishin, involving herself in agriculture on the lands she inherited and always seeking solutions to the many challenges the local people faced.
She was respected as an elder in her community and raised many in Pishin. She joined the National Awami Party (NAP), led by Khair Buksh Marri in Balochistan, and in the 1970 Pakistani national elections, she was elected to a Balochistan seat, representing the province. She believed strongly that she could make a difference for both Balochistan and women. She is a signatory to the 1973 Constitution on behalf of Balochistan as a federating unit of Pakistan.
I spoke with her granddaughter, Nilofer Qazi, about her memories of her remarkable grandmother. “My grandmother was an avowed democrat, a secular and progressive woman, and a politician. She continued her struggle and belief in the destiny of Balochistan, as a people deserving of a good life, through social work after General Zia-ul-Haq took over, bringing significant changes to the country's direction and vision. The path she walked was neither a myth nor a manufactured narrative, nor was it solely shaped by the family she married into. Instead, it was her own Irish experience that defined her beliefs, values, and expectations—and ultimately her struggle for the people she adopted as her own after 1948.”
Education, income generation, health, and the right to choose (reproductive rights) were cornerstone rights she advocated (parliament documents are replete in evidence) and outside of parliament. She helped Afghan refugees organize themselves in camps and improve their living conditions after they fled during the Soviet Union invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan. She organized Pishin and Afghan women in product development to enable them to generate income using their traditional skills and to earn from home if they would not leave purdah environs which were common in the area.
She taught them to be cleaner in hygiene for themselves and their children to improve their health, and to educate their children. Her granddaughters spent every day of their holidays in these camps and have fond memories of time spent amongst the camp inhabitants with their grandmother helping the women with their needs and projects. She organized the first ice factory in Balochistan in Pishin and had planned a tinning factory, but electricity was a challenge and still is in most of Balochistan today.
Jennifer Musa also supported local madrassas, but only those that would teach English and mathematics. All the staff in Qazi house had to be educated or Mummy Jennifer (as she was most fondly known) would take serious measures if anyone thought they could skip school. Those who were in contact with her in any way would tell you she was known to seek you out if you were playing truant and take you back to school with a glare that never let you dare to skip a class ever again. 
Jennifer Musa chose to live most of her life in a harsh environment, thousands of miles from the place where she was born. She remained in Balochistan for six decades, refusing to leave even when the neighbouring Afghan province of Kandahar was overrun by Taliban insurgents. As she did for her community, she ensured her son was well-educated and to stand up for what he believed in. Ashraf Jehangir Qazi went on to a high-profile diplomatic career serving in the United Nations as the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Sudan and UN Special Envoy in Iraq, where he helped coordinate humanitarian and reconstruction efforts. He served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States and also to Russia, Syria, East Germany, India, China, and had other diplomatic appointments.

Jennifer Musa’s ecosystem was Pishin and Balochistan. Her adventures, her experiments, successes and failures were all there. She believed in freedom, education, opportunity, and security for all equally. When she died in 2008 at the age of 90, her entire village came out to pay their respects to Mummy Jennifer, the deeply loved ‘Irish Queen of Balochistan’. But she was never forgotten in the place of her birth despite not having visited since the 1960s. In July 2024, a plaque in her honour was unveiled in Tarbert Ireland, at a ceremony attended by her relatives from Pakistan, the Ambassador to Ireland Aisha Farooqui, and Irish dignitaries as a mark of respect to this extraordinary Irish emigrant who did so much for the people of her adopted land. Jennifer Musa’s inspirational story and legacy exemplifies the true meaning of selfless humanitarian work and making a difference for others.
Due to the efforts and dedication of a German Catholic Nun, Dr. Ruth Pfau MD, in 1996, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Pakistan one of the first countries in Asia to have controlled leprosy. Leprosy affects all ages from early childhood to old age. It is curable and treatment during early stages can prevent physical deformity. However, people affected by leprosy also face stigmatization and discrimination. In South Asia and the developing world, poverty and the inability to access treatment, sentence sufferers to a social death–life as an outcast, shunned by their families and society.
In 1956, a small group of volunteers from a religious congregation had already started the fight against leprosy working in the Leper Colony near McLeod Road in Karachi. The living conditions of the colony were dreadful. There were no proper drugs, no facilities, no electricity, no clean water, and only a small dispensary, which the group had built with wooden fruit crates. Sewerage and garbage overflowed into the laneways from open drains; rats scurried around. People waited in this nightmare scenario, walking or, for some, crawling, to seek whatever help they could get. Every last shred of their dignity had been taken by the disease and the conditions in which they existed. 

Due to the efforts and dedication of a German Catholic Nun, Dr. Ruth Pfau MD, in 1996, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Pakistan one of the first countries in Asia to have controlled leprosy.

Meanwhile, a young woman who would change the future for leprosy sufferers in Pakistan was completing her medical studies thousands of miles away in Germany. Dr. Ruth Pfau, MD was born on September 9, 1929, in Leipzig. Living under constant bombing and displacement in World War II, she understood suffering and the tragedy of loss and deprivation. After the Soviet post-war occupation of East Germany, her family moved to West Germany. She studied medicine at the University of Mainz and the University of Marburg, and subsequently joined the Order of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, whose motherhouse is in Paris.
In 1960, Dr. Pfau landed in Karachi on her way to work in India. Visa problems delayed her onward journey so, to use her time productively during her stopover, she visited the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Clinic, run by her Congregation in the Leper Colony off McLeod Road (now I. I. Chundrigah Road). On seeing the plight of those affected with leprosy there, she decided to stay on to help. In a story reporting her passing in 2017, the BBC quoted Dr. Pfau as saying, "Actually the first patient who really made me decide was a young Pathan. He crawled on hands and feet into this dispensary, acting as if this was quite normal, as if someone has to crawl there through that slime and dirt on hands and feet, like a dog.”
Aged just 29 when she arrived, Dr. Pfau stayed in Pakistan for the rest of her life, dedicating herself to the eradication of leprosy and, ultimately, the plight of sufferers of tuberculosis (TB) and blindness. Soon after arriving, Dr. Pfau visualized the need to establish a leprosy hospital to cater to the needs of the many patients visiting the dispensary. With the help of funds from Germany in 1963, a small clinic was established in the Saddar area, despite resistance from the local community due to the stigma attached to leprosy. However, Dr. Pfau and her colleagues eventually overcame these objections and moved into a one-story building, which later grew into an eight-story medical facility.

In 1968, Dr. Pfau persuaded the Government of Pakistan to undertake a National Leprosy Control Programme in partnership with the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre (MALC) and began setting up Leprosy-control centres across the country. Today, the MALC is the hub of 157 Leprosy control centers, with over eight hundred staff members.
After successfully controlling the spread of leprosy, MALC expanded its efforts to include other health disciplines such as tuberculosis (TB) and blindness control, utilizing its available capacity while maintaining its presence in leprosy care.
Dr. Pfau received numerous awards during her lifetime, including honors from the Governments of Pakistan and Germany, as well as posthumous recognition. When she passed away on August 10, 2017, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan announced that a State Funeral would be held in her honor. He remarked, "Dr. Ruth Pfau may have been born in Germany, but her heart was always in Pakistan. She came here at the dawn of a young nation, seeking to improve the lives of those afflicted by disease, and in doing so, she found herself a home. We will remember her for her courage, her loyalty, her service to the eradication of leprosy, and most of all, her patriotism.”

At her State Funeral, the flag of Pakistan was draped over her coffin, and the three branches of the Pakistan Armed Forces offered a 19-gun salute. In her honor, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) named its new medical institution the Fazaia Ruth Pfau Medical College. Additionally, the State Bank of Pakistan issued a commemorative coin in her name. These are rare honours.
 But it is her work that remains her lasting legacy. Leprosy is controlled, though not yet completely eradicated. The clinics and centers she established continue to provide vital healthcare services, carrying forward her mission of completely eradicating leprosy and treating other diseases. Dr. Ruth Pfau's story is a shining example of how one person's unwavering commitment, compassion, and selfless dedication can bring about significant positive change. The life and work of this German nun, who made Pakistan her home and served its people for 57 years, remind us that humanity knows no boundaries.
Convent schools and colleges in Pakistan, originally run mostly by foreign nuns as missionaries from Catholic religious orders in Ireland, England, and Europe, have played a critical role in education, particularly in Pakistan’s earlier years. Although these were missionary schools, the purpose was education, not proselytization to convert students to the Christian faith. Parents sent their Muslim daughters to these schools because of the high quality of education, English and local language curriculum, and disciplined approach. 
The same can be said of the schools and colleges for boys established by the Catholic missionary Fathers. Parents sent their sons to these institutions for the same reasons. Many of Pakistan’s senior businessmen and women, civil servants, senior military officers, educators, health professionals, and politicians credit their success to the early education they received at these schools. While they are too numerous to mention, some outstanding and inspirational principals at these institutions dedicated their lives to their Pakistani students, remaining for years—some for the rest of their lives.
One of the best known is Sister John Berchmans Conway, born in County Clare in Ireland in 1929. In 1951, she joined the Roman Catholic Congregation of the Religious of Jesus and Mary, founded in France in 1818, dedicated to caring for and educating the young and the homeless at home and abroad. The first Convent of Jesus and Mary (CJM) in Pakistan for girls was opened by four missionary nuns in Lahore in 1876. Over time, CJMs were opened in Karachi, Murree, and Sialkot.

Sister Berchmans was sent to Pakistan in 1953 at the age of 24. She stayed for more than 60 years dedicating her life to education and her students. Amongst her many notable students were two-time Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, the first woman to head the government of a Muslim country; Shameen Obaid-Chinoy, a two-time Academy Award winner; Diplomat Tehmina Janjua; Nergis Vavalvala, Pakistani American astrophysicist who is the Kathleen Marble Professor of Astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Syeda Abida Hussain, a former Pakistan Ambassador to the United States, and former Minister for Food and Agriculture, sisters Asma Jahangir and Hina Jilani, human rights lawyers; Tehmina Durrani, author and humanitarian; and Maryam  Nawaz, Chief Minister of Punjab Province.
Many other students went on to have successful and notable careers as doctors, medical professionals, lawyers, artists, and humanitarians, contributing significantly to society. I reached out to some of the women who were taught by Sister Berchmans to hear their memories of school days. As is often the case for students everywhere, memories of teachers from school days are a mix of great fondness and the recollection of a strict teacher who demanded the best from her students. 
“She was very strict (but then it was a Convent). Now, in retrospect, I feel she was the key to molding our personality. Thank you, Sister Berchman.”
“She was young, tall, and so beautiful in her religious clothes when I was studying in Murree. Not strict. A gentle person.”
“Sister Berchman was strict, but then most of them (the nuns) were. Their discipline and dedication are unparalleled and played a role in our growing-up years.”
Another former student, a highly respected member of society and an accomplished poet and composer, shared a story of being taken to Sister Berchman’s office by her math teacher. Her father was called in and informed that she was considered a troublemaker in math class because she insisted on understanding the logic behind an equation before attempting to solve it. Sister Berchman sternly told the student’s father that if he wanted his daughter to stay at CJM, she would need to study arts, not sciences. Stern words indeed, but the student went on to have a stellar career in the arts.
In 2012, the Government of Pakistan conferred the Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam on Sister Berchman for her services in education and promoting interfaith harmony. Her students were almost entirely Muslims, but she embraced students of all faiths. As a tribute to her contributions to education in Pakistan, in 2020, the Karachi Administration named a road in Clifton in her honor, recognizing her dedicated service to education. She passed away in the United Kingdom in December 2022, leaving a lasting legacy in Pakistan from 65 years of service to the country, promoting the value of a good education, humanity, and interfaith harmony.

Burn Hall College (now Army Burn Hall College) is one of the leading educational institutions in Pakistan today. It was founded by Catholic Fathers from the St. Joseph’s Missionary Society of Mill Hill, based in England. Father Herman Thijssen was a remarkable figure in the history of Burn Hall School. Born in the Netherlands, he studied at the Mill Hill colleges in Tilburg, Roosendaal, and Mill Hill. He was ordained as a priest in 1932 and initially served in Nellore, India.
The Army Burn Hall College website highlights the crucial role played by Father Thijssen, along with Father Shanks, Father Scanlon, and other foreign priests, in establishing Burn Hall in Abbottabad. Prior to this, Father Thijssen had played a key role in founding Burn Hall School in Srinagar in 1943. After Partition, he left India in 1947, migrated to Rawalpindi, and reopened Burn Hall School in Abbottabad in 1948, serving as one of its founding principals. His dedication and efforts laid the foundation for Burn Hall to become the prestigious institution it is today.

Father Thijssen also established St. Mary's School in Rawalpindi and Peshawar, further highlighting his passion for education and his ability to build and manage schools. The main building of Senior Burn Hall School, the Thijssen Block, is named in his honour to recognize his invaluable contributions. He remained committed to education in Pakistan till his retirement in 1972 when he returned to Oosterbeck in the Netherlands.
The Pakistan Army took over Burn Hall in 1977 and has since elevated it to new heights of excellence. Today, it operates as a co-educational institution with separate facilities for boys and girls, offering an impressive curriculum that includes both Cambridge and Matric/FSc streams of education. The college also boasts a diverse extracurricular program featuring various sporting and cultural activities. The alumni of Army Burn Hall College form an outstanding ‘roll-call’ of impressive individuals who have made significant contributions to Pakistan.
Colleges in Peshawar also benefitted from the work of dedicated educationalists from other countries. Dr. Phillip Edmonds, PhD (London) CBE, served as one of the most prominent Principals of Edwardes College Peshawar from 1955 to 1978. He was known for maintaining discipline in the college and was highly respected by his students. His wife, Belle, was a medical professional who ran free clinics for locals. During their 22 years living in Peshawar, they were closely involved in college and community life.

As is clear from social media, Dr. Edmonds is remembered by his students, for his many acts of kindness, his keen endeavour and his interest in raising the academic standards of the institution and producing well-rounded students.  Many of his students went on to senior positions in government, civil service, and other professions. Dr. Edmonds stayed in contact with many of his students long after he left Pakistan providing them with guidance about their careers.
Another notable figure was the Englishman, Professor Hubert Michael Close, who spent 52 years in Peshawar. H. M. Close was a graduate of Cambridge University in the UK. He was teaching at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, when World War II broke out. In 1940, he received a regular commission in the army. During the period of independence, he was actively involved in the rehabilitation of refugees. He arrived in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in 1947 and dedicated himself to education.
 He taught at Islamia College for three decades and then moved to Edwardes College from 1982 to 1996. In addition to being an academic, he was a historian, author of several books, social worker, and missionary. He died in Peshawar in 1999, widely mourned by his many former students. An important legacy of his time in Peshawar was encouraging people to become blood donors to save the lives of others. The H. M. Close Blood Donors Society at Edwardes College to this day arranges annual blood donation camps in which apart from blood donation, free screening tests to diagnose Hepatitis B and C are conducted. 
These are just a few of the outstanding foreigners who dedicated most of their lives to Pakistan. There are many more, including later arrivals who are still here today, and some of their stories will be covered in Part 2 of this series. What they all have in common is that they inspired their communities and generations of young people to succeed in life and contribute to society. Through their contributions, resilience, and love for this country and its people, they have all become an integral part of the nation’s proud history. 

(To be continued…)

The writer is an Australian Disaster Management and Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Advisor currently residing in Islamabad. She consults for the Government and United Nations agencies and has previously worked with both the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). 
E-mail: [email protected]