By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Americans ought to worry less that Pakistan might become undemocratic and more that the people there don’t like us, Pakistan expert Ijaz Shafi Gilani told attendees of the Great Falls Forum on Thursday.

Everyday Pakistanis have grown to dislike American policies, particularly as they relate to Afghanistan, said Gilani, a former special adviser to the prime minister of Pakistan. They once loved us, though.

In the 1980s, the United States gained admiration for its aid of Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. However, when the occupation ended, so did U.S. aid.

“They felt a sense of abandonment by the United States,” Gilani said.

Pakistan’s population is currently about 150 million, roughly half the size of the United States.

Gilani, a professor at Quaid-I-Azam University in Islamabad, is currently spending a six-week residency at Bates College. One of his aims is to help Americans better understand how the Muslim world and Pakistan in particular view them.

He addressed more than 85 people who attended the forum’s lecture, held at the Muskie Archives on the Bates campus.

One of Gilani’s messages was that Pakistan has a widespread desire to remain democratic. It’s something the professor has worked to measure in his part-time work for the Gallup company.

In a recent poll of the country, in which 6,000 Pakistanis were interviewed, about 70 percent said they thought democracies are the preferable governments, Gilani said. About 15 percent thought another kind was best. Another 15 percent said they didn’t know.

Similar polls of Eastern Europe showed support of democracy to be slightly lower, at 67 percent, Gilani said.

That said, Pakistanis like American culture and products. The survey showed that U.S. goods are the market’s most trusted.

And American people?

“They are the most beautiful,” Gilani said.

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