ISLAMABAD: `Pakistan behind the Headlines`, a photographic exhibition by Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), explores the lives of the residents of Kurram Agency and other displaced people of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

The exhibition opened at the Nomad Art Gallery drawing in Pakistanis and foreigners alike for whom the stories from that region are invariably of violence and terrorism, told in statistics.

The concept of the exhibition came from Shaista Aziz, a freelance journalist who has been working with MSF for two years, of which nine months were spent in Pakistan.

Shaista says, `In 2014 I travelled to Kurram Agency with a colleague. I was stunned by the beauty of Fata and the dignity and resilience of the people. It is an area we do not hear about.

She added, `On my visit to the MSF hospital, I was struck by the number of sick children, suffering. It was clear this was an area with great medical need. One of the things that MSF does is advocacy on behalf of patients and it was clear to me that it was important for the people of Fata to be seen since we don`t see them.

Shaista said: `When we went in February to takes these photographs, we realised these people are not used to people asking questions and asking about their lives. But they were willing to be interviewed and photographed. They are gentle people and the most poignant moment for me was when this [pointing to a photograph] elderly gentleman came up to me outside the MSF office and showed me his ID card to tell me that he was a Pakistani.

`We went to Durrani Camp. I have travelled to many camps around the world but this was the saddest one. People have been there for seven years and living in fear and anxiety. It is very important to see people through a humanitarian lens and not the lens of terrorism. This exhibition is about humanising these people,` she added.

Sa`adia Khan, the photographer, said: `The day I was leaving for this shoot, I told a Pakistani friend that I was going to Fata and she asked what country that was. This gives you an idea of how unfamiliar the region is for Pakistanis. This commission was my way of making a difference.

`When going out to these places, one feels trepidation. But these people are incredible,` she said, pointing to a picture of a young girl. `Could you tell this young girl is suf fering from acute pneumonia,` she added.

The Fata region, which is located in Pakistan`s north-western Himalayan zone and the south-western Sulaiman Mountains, is covered in snow in winters. The tents, which Sa`adia photographed, are often insulated (with two layers) so even when it is a bright day outside, the tents and their denizens are in shadow.

A set of three paintings, apparently showing textures in varying colours, are in actuality pictures the typical pleated Afghan burqa. Most of the photographs feature children, boys and girls, and older men, while a few show women in the shadows, for whom, as Sa`adia puts, `a camera is like a loaded gun`.

The pièce de résistance of the exhibition was an enormous image of the Durrani IDP Camp, home to 2,000 displaced men, women and children, nestled between the mountains on one side and a graveyard on the other. The camp which has been there for seven years and when the IDPs return to their homes, they will be leaving the cemetery behind.

The most heartrending photograph is, perhaps, that of Mohammad Ali Shah, a 12-year-old boy with an engaging smile, who stepped on a landmine on his way to school one morning. He has lost a leg and a hand in the tragedy but is determined to carry on going to school because he wants to be a teacher. Since the photograph was taken, he has been fitted with a prosthetic leg.

Nageen Hyat, owner of Nomad, said: `It is very important for us to know what is happening in those areas and what organisationslike MSF are doing. What is being done for these people is a very important question that we must answer.