Accents and foreign words?

Since when did Pakistan become pronounced "Pahk-is-tahn"? Obama routinely says this, but why? I was just listening to an interview by Charlie Rose of some NYT journalists who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for reporting on Pakistan and Afghanistan. In his introduction, Charlie says "Pahk-is-tahn and Aff-gann-ist-ann" with consistent back /ɑ/ (as in "father") in Pakistan but front /æ/ (as in "fad") in Afghanistan. I say both with all /æ/ sounds (as in "fad"), and I'm positive this is the traditional pronunciation. In fact, Charlie says the word "Pakistan" three times in his short intro, in three different pronunciations: respectively "Pahk-is-tahn", "Pack-is-tann" and "Pahk-is-tann", occurring near the beginning middle and end of the intro. It's also interesting that after the first sentence or so he starts speaking faster and slips into a "hidden but noticeable" southern accent with some dropped /r/'s and some cases of "tahm" instead of "time", but this goes away by the end, where he abruptly slows down and drops the pitch of his voice, ending on the drawn-out "newscaster growl" that is a source of endless amusement in anchorman parodies.

It's as if he really concentrates on "newscasterly" pronunciation at the beginning, then forgets in the middle as he warms to the occasion, and then partly remembers again towards the end where he needs to assume the "newscaster accent" and "newscaster growl" (no southern drawl or informal, sissy speaking allowed!) so that the last thing the viewers remember is that, regardless of whatever else he said, Charlie Rose is definitely a manly newscaster!

Jokes aside, why "Pahk-is-tahn" with "foreign" /ɑ/, but "Aff-gann-ist-ann" with "down-home" front /æ/? Maybe Afghanistan is more "down-home" because now we "own" it, whereas we're only "renting" Pakistan? And when did a preference for faux-foreign pronunciations sneak back in, anyway? It's true we've always had a fad for this: viz. "Ber-LIN" with "foreign stress", and "Bei-ZHING" with "foreign zh", even though the Germans actually say "BER-lin" (so "local" stress would be correct) and the Chinese say "BEI-JING" with normal "j" (IPA /dʒ/) and equal stress on both syllables (so that the "BEI-jing" with "local" stress and "local j" would be quite accurate). And the pronunciation of "lingerie" is a total abomination. But we laugh (or used to laugh?) at pretentious Classical music announcers solemnly declaiming about "Voalf-gahng" Mozart and "Loot-veek foan" Beethoven, especially when they don't even get the foreign pronunciation right (e.g. -wig in Ludwig is properly /vɪç/, something like "vish" but actually using the sound at the beginning of English hue instead of "sh"; definitely not "veek"). Same goes for prissy newscasters who speak of "Nee-kah-RRRAH-wah", said in their best Spanish accent and all too often with a long trilled "r" in the middle that doesn't actually belong here. (But it took me SOOOOOOOOO long to get this sound right! PLEASE PLEASE let me demonstrate my erudition to you! Pretty please?!)

Actually I shouldn't talk. Even I say "Nicka-RAHG-wuh", rather than the British abomination "Nicka-RAGG-you-a". (As in "Best watch out, Nick a rag you a big one if you not carefuh" although I can't for the life of me say what "rag you a big one" actually means. Any takers for some creative retrodefining of this term?)