海角大神

Red-brick buildings surround a dusty quad where students play pickup cricket games between classes. Inside a classroom, some of Pakistan鈥檚 best students are discussing the nation鈥檚 tangled relations with the United States.

Among the few dozen gathered at the liberal arts school of Lahore鈥檚 Forman 海角大神 College, opinions vary: Some call the US an 鈥渆conomic hit man鈥� trapping Pakistan with circular debt; others argue Pakistan should not have solicited billions of dollars in aid over six decades.聽

What unites most of this elite English-speaking group is the expectation that they will eventually hold leadership roles. Several believe they can make a difference. All the women in the room plan on working outside the home.

鈥淓verybody in his or her own capacity can be a catalyst,鈥� says Syed Ali Zia Jaffery, a junior studying international relations and history who blogs against extremism and wants to work in academia or in government.聽

The students are part of Pakistan鈥檚 bulging Millennial generation, the 18-to-36-year-olds who make up a majority of the country. Like Pakistan itself, this rising generation 鈥� 60 percent of the population is under 30 鈥� is a diverse group with ethnic, religious, language, and class divides. Some, like Mr. Jaffery, are planning top-level careers. Others struggle for an education. All are faces of the future of Pakistan, the nuclear-armed state of nearly 200 million.

This generation is tired of the global perception that Pakistan is a byword for terrorism, drones, and duplicity. Many are challenging what one Pakistani Millennial calls the 鈥渃ulture of dependency鈥� and want to build a more self-reliant Pakistan.聽

Yet there is frustration over staggering challenges: a home-grown terrorist insurgency, a slumping economy, a threadbare education system, and a powerful and entrenched political and military establishment.聽

The US withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan this year injects further uncertainty. Since 2001, Pakistan has been a key partner in the US-led push against terrorism. Now, there is widespread concern that US money and attention will fade as attention to the region fades.

Pakistan鈥檚 rising generation is an area 鈥渋f not for optimism, at least for some hope,鈥� says Daniel Markey, a Pakistan specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington and author of the book 鈥淣o Exit from Pakistan.鈥� 鈥淚f the country could figure out a way to harness this energy, they could turn it to good.鈥� The danger is that the next generation鈥檚 zeal for change often turns to frustration, he warns.

'Millennial' frustrations聽

Pakistan鈥檚 history has never been smooth. The country was founded on a bloody partition from India in 1947 and has since fought two wars with its giant neighbor. Military strongmen have ruled the country for nearly half of its existence. Despite a large English-speaking workforce, the country鈥檚 economic potential has rarely met expectations.

Pakistani Millennials share these frustrations: In a survey conducted by the British Council before the election last year, 94 percent of Pakistanis between the ages of 18 and 29 thought the country was heading in the wrong direction. Only 29 percent believed democracy was the best political system for Pakistan, coming in behind military rule and sharia聽Islamic law.

鈥淧akistan鈥檚 next generation remains on a knife edge,鈥� the report鈥檚 authors wrote. 鈥淚t is far from too late to unleash its potential, but time is beginning to run out.鈥�

One sign of untapped enthusiasm among Pakistan鈥檚 youths was the campaign of cricket hero-turned-politician Imran Khan in national elections last year. Thousands of urban middle-class students and young professionals rallied behind Mr. Khan, who ran a campaign based on anticorruption and change that drew comparisons to President Obama鈥檚 2008 campaign.

鈥淚mran Khan is the hero of the young people,鈥� says Aasiya Riaz, codirector of PILDAT (Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency), a nonprofit in Islamabad that aims to promote democracy in Pakistan. 鈥淓arlier, the youth seemed outside of the political system. They thought politics was too corrupt.鈥�

But instead, two-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was reelected. It was Pakistan鈥檚 first successful transfer of power from one democratically elected government to another.

Power in Pakistan is closely held. Pakistan鈥檚 leaders have dragged their feet on holding local elections under a constitutional amendment passed two years ago that required provinces to hold them. State and national officials don鈥檛 want their traditional role of providing local services 鈥� and patronage and power politics 鈥� to be undercut, Ms. Riaz says.

鈥淯ntil we have a fairly well-structured local government system in place where we can engage young people and give them a voice, these youth will become disillusioned,鈥� Riaz says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 sad for any country, because once [young people] go back into their shell it鈥檚 hard to get them out.鈥�

The Tech Entrepreneur聽

Umair Aziz, the young chief technology officer at one of Pakistan鈥檚 fastest-growing tech companies, has a problem: After two or three years, the company鈥檚 employees tend to leave for Australia, Britain, or the United Arab Emirates.聽

鈥淭hey understand their global value,鈥� Mr. Aziz says. 鈥淭hey know they can rise to the top anywhere, and they usually do rise to the top.鈥�

Aziz was once on the same path. After graduating from the College of Wooster in Ohio with a computer science degree in 2000, he moved to Boston to work as a software engineer. But after 9/11 he decided to return home.聽

He was driven by a personal reason 鈥� he wanted to give back to his country 鈥� and he spotted a business opportunity. Pakistan had plenty of trained programmers and other skilled professionals who were paid a fraction of the amount paid to similar talent in the US.

Today, Creative Chaos, the company he helped found, is a top-100 Pakistan growth company and is on the Arabia 500 list, a ranking of the region鈥檚 fastest-growing companies. It is a regional partner for multinationals such as Coca-Cola and Unilever for software design and digital analytics management. Last year, engineers in his Karachi office built software for 180 police stations in South Carolina.

A walk through the red-and-white cubicles at Creative Chaos finds some of Karachi鈥檚 brightest: A recent graduate from Ohio Wesleyan University landed his first job as an associate account manager. A young woman running the Pakistan Unilever social media account says that the company is an extremely popular place to work. Most employees are busily typing at their desks; the ping-pong table and drum set in the basement sit untouched.

For all the excitement Creative Chaos exudes, Aziz is also frustrated that there isn鈥檛 a venture capital or angel investor scene in Pakistan for start-ups to raise capital. Foreign clients are scared off by a Pakistan address, so the website promotes its New York City offices.

Government policies, such as a 1-1/2 year ban on YouTube, aren鈥檛 business-friendly, Aziz says, despite Mr. Sharif鈥檚 pro-business stance. Part of the problem, Aziz says, is that technology systems 鈥渁llow you to remove corruption from society鈥� by increasing transparency in areas prone to corruption, such as government procurement. 鈥淏ut people don鈥檛 want to lose their jobs and their power, so they are resistant.鈥� A 2007 World Bank study concluded that the online procurement of work and goods would help automate services and reduce corruption.

Although Aziz can find enough skilled Pakistanis to work at Creative Chaos, they are the fortunate ones: The majority of Pakistani youths struggle to find a job.

As of last year, only 1 in 10 young Pakistanis between the ages of 18 and 29 held stable employment, according to the British Council survey. Rising prices, unemployment, and poverty are three of the most important issues to this generation, the survey found, above security and terrorism.

鈥淲e need 15 years of boring, and then we can be a China or a Malaysia鈥� with economic stability for the next generation, says Azam Chaudhry, a professor at the Lahore School of Economists.

The 鈥楳adrasa鈥� Mufti聽

Madrasas, or religious schools, often are blamed by the West for seeding extremist ideas in young Pakistanis.聽

But this broad-brush view doesn鈥檛 tell the full story.

At the Jamia Islamia Clifton madrasa in Karachi, a school tucked next to a convenience store on a busy street, students are provided free education, food, lodging, clothes, and medical care.

Upstairs, 8-year-old students memorize the Quran. They sit on their knees and sway back and forth over the holy book for four hours, chanting in rhythm as their teachers look on. In classrooms below, students in their 16th year of studies discuss how parents鈥� wealth should be divided among siblings according to Islamic law.

This madrasa says that it is a moderate school that preaches peace and adds a modern curriculum of English, Urdu, math, computer science, history, and science to its 1,300-year-old religious courses.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want our students to just think about Islam. We want them to think about humanity as well,鈥� says Mufti Abu Huraira Mohiuddin, who, with his brother, runs the madrasa that their father started in 1977. 鈥淲e want the students to understand that we鈥檙e providing a nonsectarian education.鈥�

Jamia Islamia鈥檚 goals are laudable. It brings together Shiite and Sunni Muslims for gatherings, and it launched a debate competition in which students speak on subjects such as interfaith dialogue. But there are some signs that it may not be as moderate as it preaches. The madrasa鈥檚 founder, Mufti Mohammad Mohiuddin, who is removed from day-to-day operations, speaks stridently against Shiite Muslims who he says will start an inter-Muslim war if the US disturbs the balance of power between rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia.

It鈥檚 difficult to determine how many children in Pakistan are educated at madrasas, but estimates range from 1 to 7 percent of students, according to a 2010 Brookings Institution report. A greater problem is the overall state of education in the country.

Less than 50 percent of school-age children between 6 and 16 are literate, and 39 percent don鈥檛 attend school at all, according to the Asia Society. The government spends less than 2 percent of gross domestic product on education, less than neighboring India and Bangladesh.

Most scholars agree that the link between education and extremism goes beyond madrasa education, says Mr. Markey of the Council on Foreign Relations.

鈥淧eople started to recognize that the vast majority of education wasn鈥檛 happening in madrasas, and many weren鈥檛 doing anything other than teaching the Quran, which in and of itself wasn鈥檛 turning out terrorists,鈥� he says. 鈥淧ublic schools were often teaching anti-Indian, anti-Semitic [ideas], and were radical in a more nationalist way, which was completely unhelpful.鈥�

The elder Mr. Mohiuddin bristles when he is asked why young Pakistanis might turn to extremism.聽

鈥淎 very small role is played by madrasas,鈥� he says. 鈥淒octors and engineers are also terrorists.鈥�

The Artist聽

The tension between the many facets of Pakistan is captured on the walls of Gallery 6, founded in 2008 and now Islamabad鈥檚 largest private art gallery.

Soft music plays as the curator talks about the pieces hanging on the bright white walls. Some highlight Pakistan鈥檚 rural roots, with scenes of lush farmland. Others are avant-garde. There鈥檚 a painting made with human hair collected off a hairbrush.

Two paintings by Sana Arjumand, the daughter of the gallery owner, are on display. Since graduating from the National College of Arts in Lahore in 2005, she鈥檚 exhibited her work in Pakistan鈥檚 biggest cities and abroad.

In a painting called 鈥淗ere I grew up,鈥� Ms. Arjumand depicts herself under a spotlight. Two exaggerated green figures 鈥� one wearing the star and crescent of Pakistan鈥檚 flag on her hat 鈥� stare at her as they whisper to each other. The painting, nearly seven years old, is from a time when she looked at herself from other people鈥檚 perceptions. Now, she鈥檚 found inspiration in Sufi teachings, is married with a young child, and is less concerned with what other people think, she says.

But overall, society is still confused about what the identity of Pakistan is, she says. She points to television, on which Indian and Turkish soap operas are plentiful, and to the debate over what clothes are best suited to be Pakistani national dress. 鈥淲e need to figure out what Pakistan is and what is the Pakistani identity. There鈥檚 confusion,鈥� she says. 鈥淓verything in Pakistan is now being questioned and changed. We鈥檙e going through that point where change is needed.鈥�

The time for Pakistan鈥檚 power brokers to listen to the goals and needs of Millennials is now, Markey says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a very serious risk that this positive energy will not amount to what we might hope, and be squandered,鈥� he says.聽

Chelsea Sheasley reported from Pakistan on a trip organized by the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii.