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Scholar Takes an Inside Look at the People of Pakistan

Pamela Constable spent much time during the last 12 years working in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India as a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post. Recently, she spent six months conducting a different kind of research in the region, traveling all around Pakistan to talk to the people and observe their communities.

Currently a Wilson Center public policy scholar, on leave as the Post's former Islamabad and Kabul bureau chief, Constable is working on a book exploring Pakistani society through the eyes of the people. "The book will be a study of the populace, their motivations and frustrations, their heroes, their aspirations, and also why there is such poverty and why there is a growing influence of extremist Islamic groups."

A country of 180 million people, Pakistan has vast human potential, including a large labor force and a huge army. Unfortunately, Constable said, Pakistan is plagued with pervasive societal corruption and its long-standing rift with India has wasted vast resources and manpower. Constable said, "Pakistan has all of the democratic trappings but is having difficulty becoming a democracy, even though it was founded as one in 1948."

Constable attributes Pakistan's democratic lag to a number of persistent problems, including poor national leadership; the continuation of feudal land ownership and tribalism; low literacy; and the wide income gap.
"The median age of the population is 20," said Constable. "It's a generation with few hopes for the future and they are becoming increasingly frustrated and alienated," a combination that has given wide appeal to the Taliban and other radical Islamic groups.

Pakistan is traditionally a moderate country, said Constable. Radical Islamic groups were foreign to the country, she said. They came in the 1980s to help Afghanistan fight the Soviets and now are coming back to plague Pakistan. But in the last couple of years, she said, the mood has begun to change, as Pakistanis come to realize these armed radicals are not serving their best interests.

When Constable asked Pakistanis who they admired most, some had a hard time naming their heroes, particularly since many have been long disappointed by their leaders. Some looked to history and cited Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, while others mentioned Zulfikar Bhutto, the late political opposition leader who was prime minister in the 1970s. Some cited national poets. Others named A.Q. Khan, a physicist considered the father of Pakistan's nuclear program. "It turned out he was corrupt and sold secrets abroad," said Constable, "but he was revered for putting Pakistan on the world map."

Still others said they admire Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Pakistan's chief justice, who has taken on the daunting task of trying to reform the justice system. Constable described the courts as slow and corrupt. Plaintiffs often must pay bribes just to get a case heard, she said. A simple theft case might go on for a decade with the whole family getting arrested for lengthy questioning.

Improving the lives of Pakistanis, Constable said, will require overhauling the dysfunctional court system; addressing flaws in the education system, and rooting out radicalism, so that true democracy can take root.