Lal Jan

By focusing on what he sees as a critical group–young leaders in Pakistan's emerging, rural middle class–Lal Jan is returning control of rural development practices to local people to build consensus, design plans, and allocate resources according to the will of the people rather than to the dictates of tribal chiefs or powerful landowners.

Especially in rural areas, many people in Pakistan live in terror. Any gesture to make the allocation of resources more equitable or to change the way decisions affecting the public are made evokes the ire of chiefs or landowners who are the de facto rulers. To counter this formidable group, Lal sees that capable leadership and mobilization of the people is desperately needed. To achieve this, he is identifying promising young leaders in rural communities, training them in leadership techniques, and linking them in an effort to guide local development practices. In Khuzdar, he organized young leaders whom he had convinced to give up their party affiliations–a measure that allowed them to win the local government elections. The real win, however, came when the people of the Moola Valley region rallied behind the organization, forcing the tribal chiefs to recognize that constituency as a vital voting bloc and to negotiate a partnership with them.
This opened the way to adding the provincial government's resources to the local government's meager pool for building strategic infrastructure long delayed by the same tribal chiefs. These experiences made Lal realize that political sensitizing is the key to tackling underdevelopment and exploitation in Pakistan and can be effectively used to create a viable leadership base. Lal is now helping young leaders prepare a model development strategy, a new way to approach local governance and sustainable development, while breaking the traditional tribal hold on the area. He sees that such a strategy will equip people with a vision and the freedom to mobilize their own resources, overcome underdevelopment in Pakistan, and arrest increasing regional disparities.

The Moola Valley, a floodplain between the Kirthar and Sulaiman mountain ranges near Khudzar city in Pakistan's Balochistan Province, was once a prosperous area where travelers were always offered a meal and shelter for the night. Now, it is typical of the many underdeveloped areas of Pakistan. Communication and transportation infrastructure is basic at best; while a bus from Khudzar to Karachi takes eight hours round-trip, a road trip from Khudzar to Moola and back takes two days. Social infrastructure is also lacking; illiteracy remains widespread. Inefficient land use, overexploitation, and a decade-long drought have degraded environmental conditions to the extent that they threaten the viability of the population's subsistence farming. The once green valley now has so little capacity to retain water that rains lead to flash floods that destroy villages and crops.
While the people of Moola may want to mobilize their own resources to improve their situation, for the last half-century they have felt powerless to do so. Particularly in the most underdeveloped regions like Balochistan, rural people live under the rule of tribal chiefs and powerful landlords. These men use their position to control the area–they reward their favorites and those loyal to them–by channeling local employment and income opportunities, while enterprising individuals who challenge them often have to migrate to avoid getting killed or having their houses razed. If divorced or widowed, women may even become a chief's property.
Within this context, tribal leaders and landlords routinely obstruct development activities to maintain their status. For example, as they derive much of their wealth from lucrative, but illicit, activities, communication links are deliberately destroyed and infrastructure projects halted to keep the region inaccessible to outside law enforcement.
Nevertheless, a new generation of young people has combined basic education with outside exposure and connections to gain a measure of economic and social status. These they are using to attract government attention and external investment. The uneducated see this emerging, rural middle class of Balochistan as their link to the world beyond, while the young people are aspiring to express themselves and their new position politically.

Lal is using youth aspirations both to shape local development and to create an alternative to the leadership shown by the dominant landlords and chiefs. By identifying, training, and bringing together potential leaders from this emerging group, Lal is guiding them to facilitate the process by which the interests of local citizens are represented in development decisions.
His strategy began by encouraging young political activists in Khudzar to form a social organization called Bilsum (rainbow) with chapters at the village and district level. These chapters enabled the young leaders to make direct contact with the people of their area and to generate discussions about development needs and vision. Lal then assisted these youth in undertaking social projects that build trust and confidence between this emerging leadership and the community.
Having gained community support, the young leaders then began serving as the conduit between local politicians and the people. Some did so directly by seeking elected office; Lal convinced several Bilsum members to give up their party affiliations, enabling them to win local government elections. In such cases, Lal guides the elected to make strategic use of limited government resources, particularly those earmarked for infrastructure projects. Even when not represented directly in local government, Bilsum serves as a substantial voting bloc, forcing tribal chiefs and landowners to negotiate for their backing. Because the young leaders' social organizing translates into political power, the interaction between communities and politicians facilitated by Bilsum has gradually transformed into a partnership–the first step toward breaking the dominance of the existing powers. While politicians are increasingly listening to their constituents, local people have gained confidence by having a say in the allocation of government resources–a confidence that has led village chapters to begin demanding development and mobilizing their own resources to attract the necessary funding.
Lal is now helping Bilsum leaders codify this partnership by forming a model development strategy that allows citizens and the government to create a common vision and plan of action. By coordinating private and government investments to create synergy, preventing exploitation of resources, and incorporating existing models of cost-efficient environmental protection as part of a conservation plan, Bilsum can lay a foundation for both sustainable development and good local governance.
While Lal feels that his blend of social and political action does not directly threaten the powerful and influential in the area because it maintains a base for negotiation, keeps dialogue open, and stresses development priorities rather than their control, he acknowledges that the young need to be trained in maintaining this balance to prevent them from getting frustrated or even killed while trying to bring about social and political change. To this end, he is converting his advisory experiences into a leadership training package for young activists. As he anticipates that his work at Moola will generate mature leaders in three years, this training curriculum can be used by volunteers to spread his ideas to other parts of Pakistan while he continues to guide its development from Moola.

Lal comes from a family respected both for supporting the maintenance of law and order and for giving hospitality. Since his youth, he has maintained these values and is recognized and respected for standing firm without provoking violence. Although his mother died when he was 3, Lal fulfilled her last wish by pursuing his education.
Given his interest in politics, Lal has learned both to value raising awareness and to seek experiences that allow him to hone his skills in this area. While a young person, Lal ran for a local councilor's position in the local government elections. He remained firm in his determination to run despite his party's call for a boycott and the violent opposition of a tribal chief whose son ran against him. Finally, when the local people and elders pleaded with him to step down, he did. This steadfastness and resolve enabled Lal to go into student politics where he learned about mass mobilization and political strategizing. Since his college days, he has been involved in negotiating and creative resourcing. He had the opportunity to work closely with a mentor and social entrepreneur, Dr. Qurat ul Ain Bakhteari (also an Ashoka Fellow), during the Balochistan Primary Education Project. He subsequently applied and tested the learning in Gwadar successfully, an experience that earned him a LEAD scholarship. He then cofounded the Institute for Development Studies and Practice with Dr. Bakhteari and now works as a resource mobilization manager.
Lal proposes to focus on his idea and work full-time out of Khuzdar, his home place. He sees the work with Bilsum as the first step toward making political sensitization a tool in fighting exploitation and underdevelopment in Pakistan.