First of all, I understand there is a trend among some Pakistanis to claim descent from the Muslim conquerors which in the case of Pakistan came mostly from arab, afghan, and turkic stock. FIrst reason for this is , that the desecndants of those folks did not just disappear--they remained and intermingled. Secondly, the situation of Pakistan is extremely complex and its not very important to explain how all this happened. But since some one brings it up, i'll say a few things. Majority of Pakistanis are the ones who were present/settled here over periods of time before the muslim armies from arabia or central Asia came. With the Islamic conquest the new invaders settled down. Those who were away from their original homeland in time departed from their original customs and forged local identities. Perhaps this example would help: there are many Pakistanis who clamim descent from Afghans for example. But there are usually 2 kinds of folks involved here 1) Those who belong to NWFP and northern balochistan (the area itself being afghan proper) who call themselves the pakhtuns. They rarely refer to themselves as desecendants of afghans, since this area "IS" afghan proper. Infact, inorder to distinguish themselves they refer to themselves as "pakhtuns". 2) second are the ones who settled with the administrative muslim armies in major cities of south Asia. These folks are what I would refer the "detached group" which amalgamates its identity with a group because of self interst, language and settlement. Hence there are afghans in Punjab who speak Punjabi. There are pukhtuns among urdu speaking mohajireen who call themselves muhajir and in manner are probably very different from the "afghan proper". Usually it is these folks who on probing would go to pains of early years ancestory. Similarly, there were muslim sindhis, with traditional sindhi jatt last names who migrated to Pakistan along with other muhajireen. These folks are considered "urdu", karachite and outsider even by their own native sindhi counterparts who consider themselves sindhi proper. About 20% population of Punjab are ones who settled with the Muslim armies. These would be the desecendants of afghans, turks, arabs and iranians. (keep in mind that this would not apply to areas such as attock etc... since the pukhtuns migrated to these regions not with the armies but as a result of later migrations, same goes for the punjabi balochis).Infact this is how the British identified the muslims of Punjab by classyfying them as Punjabi Muslims...a relatively new term for the folks of these region, because of the strong and diverse blood lines.
The pattern of foreign muslim settlement (that is after the 8th century onwards) occured in a few phases. The first arabs who settled in Pakistan were the ones who settled in Sindh with the conquest by Ibn Qasim (R.A). Under and after his rule Sindh thrived. History and books were written on Sindh and commerce and trade thrived. Conversely around 30,000 sindhi jatt families (called by arabs as Zutt) were displaced to the Islamic centres in baghdad, and other cities as soldiers, physicians, and accountants. Once in a while a person may very well run into a Iraqi with the last name of Al-Sindhi etc..not to mention that in the Thousand nights and one night there is Sindbad of busra.
People think that Pakistan was converted to Islam under Sultan Memood E Ghaznavi (R.A). However the fact is that Before Sultan Ghaznavi entered the region, Much of Pakistan primarily area upto multan & bhawalpur had embraced Islam but was under the Ismaili sect. And under Ghaznavi most switched to sunni sect. This was the first phase of Arab settlement. Same goes for the turko afghan settlement outside of afghan proper.
The second phase would be during the mughal rule, when crisis and destruction of baghdad and anatolia would bring princes, artisians, poets, philosophers, musicians, courtiers etc. from bukhara, baghdad, hamadan, arabia, caucuses, gardeyz, ghazan etc... Most of these would settle in and near the court of the moghul which is delhi and intermarry with everyone.
And lastly, respect to syed is not only paid in Pakistan, in Iran they are treated to the extent of shirk. In Iraq, and other countries they are also given a lot of respect primarily from rural quarters. And not everyt syed is a descendant of the prophet (saw) many have just taken up this title for prestige.
If people make a big deal about it, then its their mentality more than anything else. Muhammad (saw) was a shepard who mend his own shoes and slept on a mat.
[This message has been edited by Sultan Toora (edited April 04, 2002).]