By Nazan Khan

“Mama, Papa look at your grandson” said Irfan with excitement and shifts his son from his hands to his fathers’ hands. “Now I become Grand paa” replied Irfan’s Father happily looking at his wife. Both Grandparents were extremely happy because they were seeing their sons’ next generation and it’s a fact you love your grand children more than your own children. After grand parents, the child was taken by Uncle and Aunty and they give their blessings to him. Then Irfan’s wife said to her in-laws; “Mamma, Papa please suggest name for your grandson”. “His name will be Ali” replied Irfan’s Mother. “Ali” said all family members collectively and then starts smiling by looking at the newly born child. This is a typical Pakistani family consists of grandparents, parents, siblings, and other relatives who all live together in the same family unit.

The real beauty of any nation lies within its traditions, values, and culture and the organization that pursue it is called a “Family”. A family that sustains its members - that supports and nourishes the members. In Pakistan, a family is not merely a group of people who are together just by nature, here family is a “bond of relationships” in which people are joint to each other with emotional ties, Where every relation makes the other relation complete, where family members love and respect each other without any expectations and where elders are regarded with respect and honour.

People in Pakistan follow the joint family system and live their lives along with their parents. They give much respect to their customs and traditions and pay due attention to family values. The value of a strong family system has played an important role in influencing individual’s living, social role, profession and decision making. A strong family unit creates a safe, positive and supportive place for all members to thrive. They are able to utilize resources and live together in a fairly healthy manner.

Each member of a Pakistani family has respect for the older family members. The Grand parents form a central beacon in a traditional Pakistani family, where they are treated with reverence and hold an authoritative place. They work together with other elder family members to solve problems, and pass their skills and experiences on to the next generation. They are good role models and looked upon as the primary source of guidance. In return, they are provided with care and support from their family members.

The male members of the family are considered to be the guardians of the family and play a significant role with respect to the well-being of their family unit. The major decisions in the family are taken by them and their words must go unquestioned. Their dream is to support their family members and work for their social and financial wellbeing. When all the male members work together and contribute equally in the family, the financial burden get minimize and the elements of jealousy and evil also get erode hence they are able to prosper and thrive together.

All of the family members live together and share joys and sorrows with each other. The elders in the family set the tone by reaching out to their friends and community and teach their children the importance of doing the same. All the female members of the family jointly handle the household responsibilities and support each other in work. As children spent most of their time under their custody therefore the entire grooming of children is also done by them. They consider their family as their entire world and jointly look after their family needs.

At the same time, the families in Pakistan never fail to look at the children in the family as "gifts from God." All the elder family members are responsible for teaching the children about the basic beliefs of the family's chosen religion. Family values, customs and traditions are also transferred to children by their elders and they are also taught how they need to treat elders with respect and honour. The children watched their parents taking care of their grandparents and are also making well thought out decisions over the years, and then children will also tend to be supportive and good decision makers themselves. Among the children of strong families there is less moral and emotional problems. They tend to go on and have strong, healthy families of their own, having learned from their elders example.

In Pakistan, people conceive the traditional and cultural family values and they give good respect considering them as divinity and sacredness. Their main objective is “living together, growing together and surviving together”. Here, giving physical and emotional support is quite usual in joint family system. This will lead to a happy, healthy and prospering family which benefits the whole society. As it is said that one good family build a good community, then all good communities build a good society and at the end all good societies jointly fabricate a successful nation.