It is 5:35 p.m. — 45 minutes to go before we break our fasts. Dar switches on the television to catch up on the latest news from the home front. There is no good news.

“The flood situation in Pakistan’s various cities is getting worse by the day. Millions are on the march toward dry land. Rivers are swollen and so are dams. Diseases are in the air,” reads the anchor of a popular Urdu television channel. Dar is reduced to tears. His hands rise in supplication. “Protect my beloved country,” he beseeches Allah, wiping away his tears.

Dar has been in the Kingdom for the last 35 years in the twin cities of Dammam and Alkhobar. “I came to Saudi Arabia a few years after attaining my master’s degree in English Literature from Gordon College in Rawalpindi. I was born and raised in Rawalpindi, but our ancestors came from Kashmir.”

He said he married a few years after arriving in Saudi Arabia, and he and his wife raised five sons. The family has Canadian citizenship and resides in Kingston, Ontario, where his sons attend Queens University.

“Let me state without any fear of any contradiction that we may have traveled the world, and we may have lived in all the best places of the world, but our hearts are in Pakistan,” he said. “Any bad news coming out of our country saddens us and forces us to head in the direction of Makkah and Madinah to pray for the wellbeing of Pakistan.”

Dar says Pakistanis here worry these days. “‘We are lucky that Allah has given us the opportunity to work here and to make Saudi Arabia our home. We don’t have to worry about bomb blasts. We don’t have to fear for the safety of our children. We don’t have to worry that our children will be kidnapped for ransom. That is what they tell me,” says Dar.

“Meaning the Pakistanis here are concerned and are fully aware of the hardships that their countrymen are enduring day in and day out.”

According to Dar, many say the disasters are God’s punishment. “We may have a different point of view, but most Pakistanis believe that God is punishing them for their wrongdoings. They feel they have invited the wrath of God for having elected corrupt people to lead them. Pakistan was to be the fortress of Islam.”

Dar says he disagrees with that viewpoint. “These are natural disasters, and they happen and are happening everywhere. Look at the landslides in China, the cloudburst in Indian-occupied Kashmir, the earthquake in Haiti. However, I do feel that Pakistanis have not been sagacious in who they chose to lead them. There is a crisis of faith in the country’s leadership. The outside world is no longer willing to help us or our government.”

Dar says all the farmland is inundated. “This means there will be no crop in the coming year. Imagine the losses. The country is ravaged. It will take a huge effort to rebuild our country.”

Although Dar sounds pessimistic, he says people in Pakistan are not. “Because we are looking at things from outside, we feel it all the more, but those who are inside the country, their spirits are not broken. On the contrary, they have learned to live amid all calamities. It is this spirit that has carried Pakistan along this far, and it is this spirit that is the source of sustenance for all Pakistanis living and working abroad.”

As the time for the call for Maghreb prayer approaches, Dar is back on his prayer mat. The television set is off now. We break the fast and leave to pray Maghreb in a nearby mosque.

Outside, a group of Pakistanis huddle and share the news from home. “Sukkur Barrage is under threat. Incessant rains, landslides have devastated Muzaffarabad. It is a ghost town.” And so the news scroll continues.