Media Credit: Matt Nicholson Anita Weiss, professor [Click to enlarge]

When University professor Anita Weiss first began doing research in Pakistan, people were puzzled as to why she would research an obscure area, especially when India seemed to be a greater focus in current events. She decided very early on that, "Everyone studies India; I want to study Pakistan."

Today, the international studies professor says she is rarely asked, why Pakistan? People just seem to understand that the country is now a vital part of the world's economic and political vitality. It is hard to imagine that Weiss has been visiting Pakistan for 30 years.

She first visited the country as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley through the Urdu language program. She stayed for four months and returned a year later to do dissertation research for her doctorate in sociology. Since that time, Weiss has been virtually everywhere within the country, has developed a close circle of contacts and friends and has felt hospitality and warmth wherever she has gone.

Even after her last trip, which was at a time when the country was under a government-ordered martial law, Weiss said, she has never felt in danger while being in the country.

Her devotion to her work and deep connection to the Pakistani people have made her deeply drawn to their political struggles. When asked what her dream for Pakistan would be she answered by describing three critical steps that she hoped they would accomplish. First, Weiss said, the political parties of Pakistan need to open themselves up to holding the democratic process within their own parties. Right now, the parties function very autocratically. Weiss describes it as being a "Party of Patronage."

"They don't respond to their constituents and they need to," she said.

Next, she said that the military government needs to be disbanded as the governing body of the country. Finally, Weiss believes that if the first two steps are carried out, the United States should take a few steps back and let the political process in Pakistan happen on its own.

Continued...

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