Improving U.S.-Pakistan Relations: A

View from Pakistani Leaders

October 2010 Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 3

Pakistani Concerns and Perceptions about Their Society and its Relationship with the U.S...... 3

Pakistani Interest in and Support for the U.S.-Pakistan Leaders Forum ...... 5

Sectors with High Potential for Relationship and Partnership Building ...... 5

Potential Participants and Next Steps in US-Pakistan Leaders Forum Development ...... 8

Partial List of Interviewees Sept. 27-Oct. 1, 2010 ...... 9

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Introduction The U.S.-Muslim Engagement Initiative (USMEI) is organizing a U.S.-Pakistan Leaders Forum, to provide a fresh, credible and visible demonstration of mutually beneficial, people-to- people partnerships between the U.S. and Pakistan. Over the next three years, it will bring together diverse leaders who are interested in long-term collaboration in sectors including education, agriculture, media, health and social services, local governance, and energy. Each Forum meeting will focus on one or two sectors, with cross-cutting participation from leaders in media and governance.

USMEI Leadership Team Members Aakif Ahmad and David Fairman traveled to Pakistan in late September, 2010 to: • Understand the primary concerns and perceptions of Pakistani leaders about their own society and their relationship with the U.S.; • assess the level of Pakistani leadership interest in and support for the Forum; • identify areas where interest in dialogue and partnership is high; and • identify potential Pakistani participants.

During the visit, USMEI staff met with over fifty influential Pakistanis in the fields of media, education, energy, agriculture, finance, health and social services, conflict resolution, national security, local and provincial governance (see attached list).

Pakistani Concerns and Perceptions about Their Society and its Relationship with the U.S. During our visit, many Pakistani leaders expressed strong concern on three issues: national and local governance; flood recovery and underlying economic and social challenges; and national security issues. They also expressed a range of views and concerns on Pakistan’s relationship with the U.S.

Governance: Nearly all Pakistani leaders we met with expressed strong concern that the current national government and the political system were fragile, unstable, unable to deliver substantial economic or social gains to the people of Pakistan, and too beholden to elite interests and the U.S. to be credible to the majority of Pakistanis. Some leaders were concerned that the unresolved constitutional debate between the current government and the Supreme Court could undermine the basis for civilian governance. Others, however, believed that civilian governance would survive, both because the military does not want to take responsibility for governance and because there is enough maturity in the civilian political leadership to avert a major crisis. Along with their concerns about national governance, a number of leaders expressed great concern that local governance is becoming less effective in providing basic security and social services, less accountable, and more politicized. Though they saw many flaws in the system of elected mayors (nazims) and local councils established under President Musharraf, many of the leaders we met were concerned that the ousting of all mayors and councils and their indefinite replacement by civil service officials (district officers) is compromising one of the only avenues that ordinary Pakistanis had for engaging with elected officials and holding them accountable.

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Flood recovery and economic challenges: In the economic and social spheres, most of the leaders we met saw flood recovery as the most significant near-term challenge facing the country. They underscored the seriousness of the problem for farmers: not only have they lost the monsoon crop, but the persistence of waterlogged land means that most will be unable to plant a winter (rabi) crop as well; some land may not be plantable until after the next monsoon. Though the temporary relocation and ongoing return to villages has demonstrated enormous resilience and social support in extended families, the worst social and economic impacts will be felt over the coming year, as farm families find themselves with no income and little support from the government. At the national level, political instability, the national debt and the limited base of strong private sector firms are limiting the potential for growth outside the agriculture sector. However, the strong progress in reform of the energy sector may offer one important avenue for both domestic and foreign investment, if energy prices are in fact allowed to rise to cover the costs of energy service.

Security: Concern about the security situation was widespread among the leaders we met. However, their perceptions of primary security challenges varied. For some, the primary concern was the potential that Afghanistan could become strongly allied with India as the U.S. pulls back from the Afghan conflict. For others, the primary concern was domestic insurgency and extremist violence, fueled by, but at least partially independent of, the conflict in Afghanistan. Among those especially concerned about domestic extremism, many made the link between problems of governance, justice and development in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and the growth of the insurgency.

Relations with the U.S.: Most leaders said that the relationship between the Pakistani and U.S. governments was seriously flawed. They perceived the U.S. as actively intervening in and manipulating the domestic political situation in order to maintain Pakistani government support for U.S. counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. Though several expressed appreciation for U.S. help with flood relief, many criticized the U.S. aid program for allowing too much money to flow through political and military channels, creating patronage opportunities without delivering meaningful benefits to the vast majority of Pakistanis. They also criticized their own political leaders for failing to defend Pakistan’s national security and civilian population against U.S. drone strikes and counter-insurgency operations inside Pakistan.

At the same time, most of the leaders we met stressed that many Pakistanis still have positive views of the U.S. for its economic opportunities, educational system, culture of hard work and individual responsibility, and personal freedoms. There is, however, a growing generational divide between Pakistanis old enough to remember a more positive climate of relations and societal interaction from the 1960s through the 1980s, and those under forty.

For younger Pakistanis, perceptions of the U.S. are primarily shaped by the sense that the U.S. abandoned Pakistan in the 1990s, has favored India in its regional strategies, backed a military strongman while claiming to stand for democracy, and is now using Pakistan to pursue its regional security objectives without regard to the impact on Pakistan’s security, politics and society. They may appreciate some elements of U.S. society and culture, but their overall view of the U.S.—both its government and its people—is strikingly negative. Their fundamental

U.S.-Pakistan Leaders Forum October 2010 4 question is whether there is any real U.S. interest in a relationship with Pakistan that goes beyond counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism. Because they see U.S. governmental aid as a quid pro quo for Pakistani cooperation on security issues, they view all U.S. government efforts to address long-term social and economic issues with considerable skepticism.

Pakistani Interest in and Support for the U.S.-Pakistan Leaders Forum Nearly all of the Pakistani leaders with whom we met expressed strong interest in the idea of a U.S.-Pakistan Leaders Forum to bring civil society leaders together for dialogue and partnership building. Many commented that such an initiative is “long overdue” and “urgently needed” as a way for Pakistanis and Americans outside of government to address negative perceptions, identify areas of common interest and build new partnerships.

They stressed that the near-total disappearance of American civil society leaders from Pakistan since 9/11 has dramatically reduced Pakistanis’ ability to see the commonalities and shared interests between our two societies. They saw great potential for visible, people-to-people exchanges and meaningful partnerships to change perceptions through direct engagement. There was strong support for the idea of using the Forum both as an incubator for new relationships and partnerships in several fields, and as a way to communicate to the public in both societies that there is great potential for constructive partnerships, not driven by their two governments. Many Pakistani leaders also urged that the Forum be used as a forum for constructive engagement, and where appropriate, constructive criticism of the intergovernmental relationship.

Sectors with High Potential for Relationship and Partnership Building Before our trip, we spoke with a number of American leaders and experts who are well-informed about Pakistan, for advice on potential areas for partnership and on Pakistani leaders to meet. Many of the Americans we consulted were skeptical about the potential for creating strong civil society partnerships. They stated three main concerns: the small number of Pakistani civil society organizations with capacity to build on; the risk that political favoritism and factionalism would undermine partnerships; and the security situation, which would make extended visits by Americans to Pakistan, and visas for Pakistanis to visit the U.S., difficult to arrange.

During our trip, we were impressed by the vibrancy and diversity of Pakistani civil society leaders and their organizations, and the number with credible track records of independence and meaningful contributions to society and the economy. A cross-cutting theme many expressed was “we welcome partnerships and exchanges to build our skills, but we don’t want your money and we don’t want political strings attached.” These Pakistani leaders appear to be at least as sensitive as U.S. counterparts to the perception of capacity gaps and the risk of politicization, and they want to ensure that any partnerships they enter into address these concerns.

That vibrancy and diversity is most apparent in the media, where broadcast and print in both Urdu and English have grown rapidly over the past five years. Jang Group, which owns Geo TV, one of the strongest commercial broadcast networks, has already pioneered a cross-societal relationship with the Times of India Group to promote better mutual understanding. Though

U.S.-Pakistan Leaders Forum October 2010 5 coverage of the U.S. is often focused on perceived U.S. meddling in Pakistani politics, there are many media outlets that seek comment from U.S. experts and would welcome more opportunities for interviews and dialogue with U.S. counterparts, and for partnerships with U.S. media organizations to deepen coverage of current events, politics and economics.

In education and health, we met several remarkable leaders who are interested in partnerships that could build their organizational capacity and staff skills. Seema Aziz is a successful clothing designer and retailer who became involved in primary and secondary education twenty years ago in response to a previous flood that wiped out many rural schools near Lahore. She has gone on to create the CARE Foundation, develop a strikingly effective model of private schools providing a quality education to the poor in and around urban Lahore, and create a partnership requested by the Lahore city government to run more than 150 schools in the city. In effect, CARE Foundation now runs the largest charter school network in Pakistan, and one of the largest in the world, serving over 150,000 students and their families. CARE Foundation is interested in partnerships to improve the management of its schools, and to scale up its operations over time. There is also strong potential for partnerships in teacher training, both with private school systems and with government teacher training colleges.

In higher education, we met with Professor Rifaat Hussein, Chairman of the Department of Defence Studies at Quaid-i-Azam University, one of the most respected public universities in Pakistan; with Syed Babar Ali, co-founder of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), the country’s most prestigious private university, and several LUMS faculty; and with Beaconhouse National University Vice Chancellor and former Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz and their School of Media and Mass Communication’s Dean, Dr. Mehdi Hasan. All three universities have occasional exchanges with U.S. counterparts now, and are eager for opportunities for faculty and student exchange, joint research on a variety of political, economic and social issues, and the creation of public forums that can address issues in U.S.-Pakistan relations through constructive dialogue. The university leaders we met with also supported the idea of engagement between U.S. universities and the public provincial universities in Pakistan, where there is even greater need for exchange to expose faculty and students to international perspectives, and to strengthen the quality of teaching and research.

At the student-to-student level, there is strong potential for Internet-based student-to-student dialogue, both through academic courses and through social networking. One possible partner is Bargad, a highly innovative campus civic engagement network. Bargad has already succeeded as a Forum to organize students interested in civic engagement, especially those who did not want to engage with campus-based political groups. As part of their work, Bargad has also been successful in bringing together students affiliated with the youth wings of political parties, some of whom may have previously been involved in political violence, and facilitating dialogue and experiential learning that had substantial, positive effects on their relationships. With Bargad’s founders, we explored the potential for U.S. and Pakistani youth leaders who are interested in promoting student civic involvement to have virtual contact, and potentially face-to-face exchange, to enable civically and politically active young people from both societies to talk about current issues in their lives and societies, and their perceptions of each other.

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In social welfare and development, the Edhi Foundation is widely recognized as the most effective grass-roots social welfare organization in the country, focusing on emergency medical response and disaster relief. We met with its founder, the humble and modest Abdul Sattar Edhi, and his son Faisal, who co-directs its work. Founded with a free dispensary and an old van in 1951, the Edhi Foundation has grown, thanks to individual contributions and no government support, to run over 300 centers, 8 hospitals and a national ambulance network. They were the first organization of its kind in South Asia to own air ambulances, providing medical assistance in rural areas. They have had very little interest in international partnerships, but have had a recent successful skill-building partnership with an Irish organization, and are open to additional partnerships that can directly support their development of a national cadre of emergency responders.

The Pashtun-majority areas of Pakistan present the most challenging combination of social welfare, governance and perception issues. We met with Mossarat Qadim, founder of PAIMAN, and twenty-five of her colleagues working on human rights, conflict resolution and community development programs in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. PAIMAN is interested in partnerships for addressing complex development and governance problems in conflict-affected areas, and believes that the visible presence of U.S. non-governmental actors working in partnership with Pakistani NGOs could have a strong impact on perceptions along with development benefits in its areas of operation.

Dr. Zaheer Ahmed, founder of Shifa International Hospitals, Ltd., built the most successful private hospital in Pakistan over the past 20 years by convincing nearly 3000 fellow Pakistani- American doctors to return to Pakistan. The profits from the hospital now fund the Tameer-e- Millat Foundation, which runs a network of over 300 schools, and the Shifa Foundation, which subsidizes medical care for the poor. Shifa is interested in skill building exchanges that would develop its cadre of medical technicians, and help expand the provision of health care services for the poor.

We surveyed a number of civil society leaders on the possibility of working with U.S. based NGOs through a youth leaders exchange program. The idea had been conceived during our May 2010 planning retreat for the U.S.-Pakistan Leaders Forum. During our trip to Pakistan, leaders in social services, education, health, human rights, women's empowerment, arts and culture and others areas expressed significant interest in collaborating with counterpart organizations in the U.S. Working with the Honorable Wendy Chamberlin and the Middle East Institute, who is leading the effort to launch this partnership, we look forward to bringing this exchange program forward as part of the agenda at the U.S.-Pakistan Leaders Forum on February 16-21, 2011.

In the agriculture sector, we met with Dr. Babar Ehsan, who is leading the effort to create more competitive markets for Punjab’s farmers. There is strong potential for partnership with U.S.- based agricultural experts in universities, extension services and agribusiness to help develop new marketing strategies, and to improve the quality and quantity of Pakistani commercial agricultural production. Because Punjab is the agricultural heartland of Pakistan, accounting for roughly 70% of all commercial agriculture, partnerships at the provincial level can have major national impact. There are also potential partnerships with Pakistani universities that focus on training agronomists and extension workers.

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In the energy sector, we met with officials responsible for both alternative energy and energy sector reform. Thanks in part to the intergovernmental U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, there is now clarity and commitment to pricing reform and restructuring to allow private management of Pakistan’s electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) and to incentivize private power production. If these reforms are followed through over the next year, there will be a major opportunity for partnership in the utility and power generation sector. Senior officials stressed that Pakistan is now heavily reliant on China for technology and investment in the power sector, and would like to see greater U.S. and European involvement, especially long-term investment in joint ventures that could provide high quality technology and management expertise.

We met with leaders across the political spectrum to discuss national governance and security issues. At the national level, we heard consistent positive response to the concept of the Forum as an opportunity for dialogue on some of the most difficult issues in the bilateral relationship, from figures as diverse as Professor Khurshid Ahmad, a key thought leader in Jamaat-e-Islami, Aitzaz Ahsan, leader of the lawyer’s movement and a long-time Pakistan People’s Party activist and legislator, PML(Q)-affiliated leader Mushahid Hussain, and former Ambassador and Air Vice Marshall (retired) Shahzad Chaudhary. These leaders all saw value in a non-governmental forum where there could be frank and constructive exchange among respected and influential figures not directly involved in or constrained by governmental policy or political imperatives.

In the area of sub-national governance, we met with several former Mayors, including the internationally-recognized former Mayors of Karachi, Syed Mustafa Kamal, and Lahore, Mian Amer Mehmood, as well as experts on local governance and the Pakistani judicial system. As and when there is a resolution of the outstanding question of the organization of new local government elections, likely coupled with reforms to the current local government legislation, there will be substantial opportunities for partnership between local government executives in the U.S. and counterparts in Pakistan. Currently, there are a number of judicial colleges where partnership for judicial capacity building in court administration and court-affiliated dispute resolution could be developed.

Potential Participants and Next Steps in US-Pakistan Leaders Forum Development Many of the Pakistani leaders we met expressed interest in participating in the Forum. We will be making formal invitations to roughly 30 Pakistani leaders over the next six weeks, while continuing our outreach to identify others. We will concentrate the first Forum on the areas of education (including job training and youth leadership) and agriculture, with cross cutting discussion of governance issues, and a significant representation of media leaders who can speak to public perception issues and help the Forum participants gain visibility at the appropriate time.

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Partial List of Interviewees Sept. 27-Oct. 1, 2010 Ms. Saadia Abbasi, Former Senator Mr. Junaid S. Ahmad, Professor, Department of Law and Policy, LUMS Professor Khurshid Ahmad, Chairman, Institute of Policy Studies Dr. Zaheer Ahmad, President and CEO, Shifa International Hospitals, Ltd Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan, Senior Advocate Mr. Syed Babar Ali, Pro-Chancellor, LUMS, CEO, Packages, Ltd. Mr. Imran Aslam, President, GEO TV Mr. Sartaj Aziz, Vice Chancellor, Beaconhouse National University Ms. Seema Aziz, Founder & CEO, Bareeze and Managing Trustee, Care Foundation Mr. Tariq Sana Bajwa, Former Town Nazim, Data Gunj Bukhsh Town Mr. Iqbal Haider Butt, Senior Partner, Development Pool Consulting Mr. Shahzad A. Chaudary, Air Vice Marshall, retired, Former Ambassador Mr. Tahir Basharat Cheema, Managing Director, WAPDA Mr. Abdul Sattar Edhi, Founder, Edhi Foundation Mr. Faisal Edhi, President, Edhi Foundation Dr. Babar Ehsan, General Manager, Business Development, Punjab Agri-Marketing Company Mr. Humayun Gauhar, Author Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani, Chairman, Gallup Pakistan Mr. Javaid Hasan, former Nazim Dr. Mehdi Hasan, Dean, School of Media and Mass Communication, Beaconhouse University Mr. Syed Javed Hassan, CEO, IGI Investment Bank Mr. Ahmad Yar Hiraj, former Nazim, District Khanewal Mr. Anwar Hussain, Chief Executive, Local Councils Association of the Punjab Mr. Mushahid Hussain, Secretary General, PML-Q Dr. Rifaat S. Hussain, Chairman, Defense Studies Department, Quaid-i-Azam University Mr. Mir Ibrahim, Founder and CEO, GEO TV Mr. Shahzad Iqbal, Manager, Finance, Kashf Foundation Mr. Syed Mustafa Kamal, Former Mayor of Karachi, Leadership Committee, MQM Mr. Faridullah Khan, Managing Director, National Energy Conservation Center Mr. Faisal Saeed Malik, Head of Information Technology, Kashf Foundation Mr. Mian Amer Mehmood, Former Mayor of Lahore, Chairman, Dunyanews.TV Mr. Shafqat Mehmood, Chair, PAIMAN Alumni Trust Mr. Hamid Mir, Anchor, GEO TV Mr. Uxi Mufti, Author and Cultural Expert Dr. Ijaz Nabi, Dean, School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, LUMS Ms. Mossarat Qadim, Executive Director, PAIMAN Alumni Trust Mr. Shaukat Qadir, Brigadier General, retired Dr. Khalid Rahman, Director General, Institute of Policy Studies Dr. Rasul Baksh Rais, Professor of Political Science, LUMS Mr. Raza Rumi, Consulting Editor, Friday Times Mr. Naveed Rizvi, Harvester Services, Ltd, Former District Nazim Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman, President, Tanzeem ul Madaris, Ahle Sunnat Pakistan Mr. Syed Faisal Sabswari, Minister of Youth Affairs, Government of Sindh Mr. Najam Sethi, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, The Friday Times

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Ms. Sabiha Shaheen, Founder and Executive Director, BARGAD Mr. Osama Siddique, Associate Professor, Department of Law & Policy, LUMS Mr. Mosharraf A. Zaidi, Columnist

Additional Interviewes Prior to Pakistan Trip and at May 2010 White Oak Planning Retreat Ms. Farkhanda Anwar, Protection Officer, UN High Commission for Refugees Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, Information Secretary, PML-N, Head of “Better Pakistan” Foundation Mr. Jehangir Ali Khan, Country Director, International Medical Corps Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, Executive Director, PILDAT Mr. Adil Najam, Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Professor of International Relations & Geography & Environment, Boston University Ms. Humaira Shahid, Journalist and Parliamentarian

Acknowledgements We would like to extend our gratitude to Mr. Zia ur Rehman and Mr. Shahzad Ullah Khattak, whose expertise and project management discipline were instrumental in organizing our trip to Pakistan.

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For more information, please contact the U.S.-Pakistan Leaders Forum at 202-468-3799 or 858-349-0276 or you can reach us by e-mail below:

Aakif K Ahmad, Vice President, Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, [email protected] David Fairman, Managing Director, Consensus Building Institute, [email protected] Robert Fersh, President, Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, [email protected] Paula Gutlove, Deputy Director, IRSS, [email protected] Dusie Hoagland, Senior Associate, Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, [email protected]

Convergence Center for Consensus Building Institute Institute for Resource and Policy Resolution 238 Main Street, Suite 400 Security Studies 1333 New Hampshire Cambridge, MA 02142 27 Ellsworth Avenue Avenue, N.W., 6th Floor Tel: 617-492-1414 Cambridge, MA 02139 Washington, D.C. 20036 Fax: 617-492 1919 Tel: 617-491-5177 Tel: 202-419-3951 www.cbuilding.org Fax: 617-491-6904 www.cnvg.org www.irss-usa.org

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