Moving to Islamabad for 2-3 years- Safety - health - food -need Infos!

Hello Catapam,

Welcome to Expat.com.

The answers to all your questions are simple. It all depends who your employer is in Islamabad. If you are coming to work for a known multinational or a communication company you will be living the life as if you were in Europe.

Some High Commissions and NGOs ( so called charitable organisations) are under strict scrutiny because of their past employees involvement in activities not in line with their official responsibilities and obviously Pakistani intelligence agencies would like to ensure that your activities are not against national interest.

1) It is safe to travel in 99 percent of areas, the remaining 1 % are well known.

2)  Accommodation with food will vary between USD 1000 to 3000 depending on the fact that you are alone or have a family.

3) Western supermarkets and food lie KFC , McDonald's, Pizza Hut are every where, surprisingly prices are lot lower than Europe.

4) Hospitals are world class standard which are run and managed by European and American qualified surgeons , no risk of being infected at good hospitals.

5) No risk of being kidnapped. You may just disappear one day if you are not careful about what I have mentioned in paragraph 2 above. Two armed guards to provide you round the clock protection will cost you approx USD 650 pm.

The best city to spend your whole life is Islamabad, people find it boring, it is the safest city in Pakistan as It is the capital,,,
best place to live is bahria town, if you can get any flat on rent,
you have places where you can go and have alcohol
life is chill in Islamabad.... must come

I notice a place called "Islamabad enclave" for foreigners.
There are a lot of flats for rent (see bellow link).
The company will pay for the rent.
Probably I can have also a house but because I am alone I will go for a safer place where I can meet also other expats instead of going for an isolated house.
Can you advise me?

Something else. Can I find in Islamabad those type of western super-market where you can go with a cart, load what you need for more days, than go with the cart in the parking in order to put them in your car?

And last thing. How is the driving in Islamabad. The basic traffic rules are respected or you can have surprises?

Thank you,

m.zameen.com/index.php?c=property_category&t=property_category&page=1&p=2&tp=8&ct=3&as_values_locs=429&

My first sentence from preview post is not visible. I was asking about Islamabad enclave, that look as a place only for foreigners were you can rent a flat compared with renting somewhere else.


I found Diplomatic Enclave somewhere toward east, on Zhou En Ali Rd boulevard. Is this the place?
If this is the case I need to drive about 10 Km from this place to the office.


Example I found:
PKR 150,000 2 7 Marla Diplomatic Enclave, Islamabad

1500 sq.ft fully furnished apartment for rent in Diplomatic Enclave, Sector G-5. 2 bedrooms, drawing, dining, kitchen, fully furnished, ceramic tile flooring, margalla view. For more information please contact.

Go head no problem at all

10 km for Islamabad is just like 10 minutes

There are some shops, gyms, pools inside diplomatic enclave?

Hi,, good to know more people are making Islamabad as next destination, Generally Islamabad is considered the safest city of the country, with few exceptions, 

1) You don't have to worry about health, rather many overseas Pakistanis, come here to get even better and cheaper treatment then USA / Canada or EU, Good hospitals are here , with English speaking doctors and surgeons.

2) Regarding accommodation / you will find houses and apartment start form USD 500  up to USD 2000, depend , what standard you want to maintain, same time this is very usual here to have maid and cook at reasonable price , any thing you want can be bought in super market, western brand are available many if not all.

3) Being capital of country many foreigners living here, no one yet kidnapped, if you want to be the one,, then only go to those corners of the city where even local do not prefer to go (like some areas of Rawalpindi ) or out side villages of Islamabad

Rest is fine / come and enjoy culture , good food,, delicious seasonal fruits , cool weather, all  4 seasons u can observe here, and scenic view of mountains ,,its better than many western countries industrial cities... Good Luck