A BRITON who held television viewers spellbound as he enthusiastically sampled every aspect of life in Pakistan, from dire poverty to the gun law of wild tribal areas, was given his reward yesterday — the promise of Pakistani citizenship.

In one of the more challenging reality shows, George Fulton, a burly 26-year-old journalist from Cheshire, was given three months to adapt to life in Pakistan as cameras filmed his every step. The show, George Ka Pakistan (George’s Pakistan), ran every Tuesday evening for 13 weeks and became the most popular show in the overwhelmingly Muslim country.

When Geo TV, a thrusting new channel, ran a teaser campaign this year declaring that “George” was coming to Pakistan, the Islamabad government might have worried.

Why did the Americans not tell them their president was visiting? Was Air Force One circling overhead? Should President Musharraf pull a fresh al-Qaida arrest from his hat?

But there was no reason to worry. Instead of the anti-terror Texan, viewers found George Fulton, a burly and amiable Englishman who became a national celebrity as the star of George ka Pakistan (George’s Pakistan), the nation’s first reality TV show.

Geo TV has ventured into the reality genre with a show titled George Ka Pakistan. As the concept of the show reveals, Geo follows George, a British, who tries to settle down in Pakistan and become a Pakistani! And to top it all he has only three months to become one.

During the series, George will extensively explore his adopted country and its people, trying to understand the complexities of Pakistani society and to discover what it means to be a Pakistani, all on his own with a strict budget and very little assistance.