Pakistani youth pessimistic about future: British Council study

As Pakistan inches towards historic polls on May 11, nearly 40 percent of the people are in favour of having an Islamic sharia rule and more than half of the youth believe democracy had not been good for the country.

A British Council study, titled Next Generation Goes to The Ballot Box, also showed that only one in five young adults expect their economic situation to improve over the next year.

An overwhelming 96 percent of those surveyed said the country was heading in the wrong direction and almost a third said they would prefer military rule to democracy.

Just 29 percent chose democracy as the best system for Pakistan, with 40 percent favouring sharia, saying it was the best for giving rights and freedom and promoting tolerance.

There was some support for a return to military rule, the most recent bout of which ended in 2008 when the PPP took power after nine years under General Pervez Musharraf, and the survey found high levels of support for the armed forces.

A study commissioned for the report estimated there were more than 25 million registered voters aged 18 to 29 in Pakistan, or slightly more than 30 percent of the electorate.

The elected government completed its full five-year term last month, the first in the country’s turbulent history to do so.

While that may have bolstered the young democracy, a growing number of Pakistanis are wondering if their leaders will ever tackle poverty, crippling power cuts, corruption and a Taliban insurgency.

“Pessimism is fast becoming a defining trait of Pakistan’s next generation,” said the British Council, which defined young people as between 18 and 29 years old.

“Economic factors appear to be the most important driver in the next generation’s rising pessimism,” said the council, which is partly funded by the British government and promotes British education, culture and business abroad.

“Over two-thirds of the next generation thinks they are now worse off than they were.”

“Young people have very low levels of confidence in the institutions – the government, parliament, political parties – most responsible for setting the country’s direction,” said the survey.

Only 10 percent of those surveyed rated terrorism as the most important issue facing the country.

The report was based on four commissioned studies, an online consultation and 5,271 in person interviews with people aged 18 to 29 around Pakistan, with a stated margin of error of less than 1.5 percent.