In a strip-lit room Aftav Sarwar dons the distinctive headgear of his tribe and recites the mantra of his new calling. “Buenos dias, me iiamo Dean Adams [Hello, my name is Dean Adams],” the 27-year-old call centre agent drawls into a telephone headset.

“Les hablo par aver si les podemos ayudar en ahorrar dinero en su préstamo de la casa [We’re calling to see if we can help you save money on your mortgage].”

Flat screens, ergonomic seats and scripted pitches for Hispanic Americans – one might expect this in Bangalore or Hyderabad, India’s outsourcing capitals. But this is Pakistan, the cradle of Islamic extremism, possible refuge of Osama bin Laden and, more recently, the site of volatile political unrest.

Mr Sarwar is one of 650 employees at the biggest of Pakistan’s 440 call centres, this one set up in Islamabad, near the Red Mosque, in 2003 by an American company, Touchstone Communications.

They speak English and are university-educated, hardly representative of Pakistan’s population of 165 million people, more than half of whom are illiterate and a quarter of whom live in poverty. For a start, a third of Mr Sarwar’s colleagues are women.

They are typical of a newly assertive professional class that has enjoyed an unprecedented, yet often overlooked, economic boom since President Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999.

“Pakistan needs a better PR company,” said Tom Slone, co-founder of Touchstone.

“People see Pakistan like the Wild West. If we could correct that perception it could be like India.” Pakistan’s economy has grown 7 per cent annually in the last five years – almost in step with India.

Salaries among the middle classes – of which there are an estimated 20 to 30 million – have risen twice as fast, allowing them to buy cars, electronics and clothes like never before. Mr Sarwar and his colleagues, most of whom live at home, earn up to 30,000 rupees (£240) a month.

In their spare time they surf the internet, listen to music and hang out in the new malls, hotels and cafes sprouting across Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.

So why are so many of those who have benefited from General Musharraf’s rule now calling for him to quit? And why are many rooting for Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister that General Musharraf toppled in 1999, and Benazir Bhutto, another exiled former Prime Minister, who announced yesterday that she would return to Pakistan on October 18?

“I guess people have short memories,” said one Western diplomat.

When Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto were last in power the economy was crippled by corruption, political infighting and a desperately inefficient state sector.

While corruption is still rife, General Musharraf’s Government has privatised more than $5 billion worth of assets and opened up much of the economy to foreign investment.

Critics say that this has mostly benefited the Army and a small landowning elite, creating few new jobs while pushing up inflation. They attribute the growth less to economic reforms than to about $10 billion of American aid and huge remittances from Pakistanis overseas since 9/11.

“If you benchmark Musharraf against the past, this has been a golden age,” said Sakib Sherani, the chief economist at ABN Amro bank in Islamabad. “The figures are correct, but is this growth sustainable, equitable or desirable?” Others blame General Musharraf’s unpopularity on his close ties with the US, whose policies are widely hated, even among the middle classes.

Equally important is Pakistan’s independent media, which has flourished since 1999 – there are now 14 private television news channels, including one in English. Live news, talk shows and satirical send-ups played a key role in turning the middle class against him after his failed attempt to sack the Chief Justice in March. The massive protests that followed were widely regarded as evidence that General Musharraf’s blend of liberal economics and authoritarian politics had failed.

An alternative explanation is that he has become a victim of his own success – by fostering a prosperous, well-informed and independent-minded professional class.

Talking politics after a daily Spanish lesson, a group of call centre agents was divided about who should lead Pakistan, but unanimous on one thing. “We’ve done well under Musharraf – we’ve got better jobs and more economic freedom,” said one. “Now we want more.”

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