News Story - Idaho State Journal

POCATELLO - When Hidayatullah Ahsan arrived in Pocatello in August 2001, it was just a couple of weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

''At that point,'' recalls Ahsan, being one of six students from Pakistan at Idaho State University, ''I wasn't thinking about having any political discussions.''

Now, Ahsan is the president of the Pakistani Student Association at ISU and is a member of the Muslim Student Association - two relatively new groups that formed last semester.

''After 9/11, the Pakistanis started hanging out together. Last semester, we decided we had enough students - 14 - to form a club,'' Ahsan says, adding, ''It's not just for Pakistanis in Pocatello. But it's also to connect those interested in studying at ISU. In Pakistan, they know all about the big names - like New York, but they don't know about Pocatello. We want to introduce Pakistanis to Idaho.''

All but one of Ahsan's childhood friends from his hometown of Rabwah in eastern Pakistan went abroad to study and work. And most of them, like him, went on to specialize in computer science.

Ahsan, a 30-year-old master's student, is pursuing his degree at ISU in computer science and mathematics, which he expects to complete in May.

His undergraduate degree, in the same subject, is also from ISU.

He came to Pocatello because his father and brother were working here, but he thinks that if more Pakistanis knew about the departments at ISU, they would want to study here.

''We have started posting information about ISU on Internet forums, telling them about the pharmacy department, for example,'' explains Ahsan. ''We want different departments at ISU to give introductions and send them to schools in Pakistan.''

Another aim of the Pakistani Student Association will be to educate people about the country - a topical subject, particularly in the aftermath of the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

''(The assassination) was a shock for everyone. If we were in Pakistan, we'd have more information. In the United States, we didn't even know what was going on. That was scary,'' Ahsan says. ''I think it will get better, but I don't know how much time it will take. Any politician that comes to power will have to deal with this.''

The Pakistani Student Association plans on dealing with this through education.

Ahsan says, ''We're planning a movie next semester about the founder of Pakistan, and we might have a Pakistan woman from Salt Lake City speak during Women's History Month.''

As for his time in Idaho as a Pakistani Muslim man, Ahsan says, ''It has been an interesting six years.'' But he adds, ''The good thing about living in Pocatello is that it's a college town, and people know what's going on in the world.''

By Brooke Anderson - For the Journal

This document was originally published online on Tuesday, January 01, 2008

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