Viewpoint: Why No Gen Z Upsurge in Pakistan?
By Mukhtar Alam
Some opinion leaders were discussing the Gen
Z movement, with the question: "Why Pakistan hasn't seen a Gen Z upsurge
like Bangladesh, Nepal, and the cockroach party chatter in India?"
Life has taught that
in no country can things be accomplished merely by wishing and wanting. At the
end of the day, it is the available environment and resources that ultimately
prove decisive.
Wishing is not structure: Every country doesn't
get a movement just because people wish for it on X / TikTok. Movements need a
specific trigger and a vacuum. Bangladesh had the quota, Nepal had the social
media ban plus corruption.
End of the day,
environment and resources decide: In Pakistan, the available environment is
very different:
· A controlled space for protest
· Economic survival pressure > street politics for most youth
· No single unifying trigger that cuts across ethnicity and class —
Balochistan, KP, Punjab, Sindh youth have very different immediate grievances
· Political parties still absorb a lot of youth anger, unlike in Nepal and Bangladesh where parties themselves were the target
AI / social media can amplify a mood, but it can't read niyyat, istitaat, aur khwab — intention, capacity, and dream. Pakistani youth's dream right now is more exit than agitation — visa, remote job, CSS, not barricade.
AI cannot offer any neutral or pinpoint prescription in this regard. As of now, gaining access to people's dreams, their capacity and their intention has not become its domain. Perhaps in the race to benefit from AI, we are, for understandable reasons, not able to pay attention to the attached warning or disclaimer — for the time being.
So Pakistan is not "failing" to see a Gen Z movement. It is experiencing it differently.
Illustration: AI-generated conceptual sketch
پاکستان کی نئی نسل بہت کنفیوز ہے وطن سے محبت بھی ہے اور وطن سے دور جاکر اپنا مستقبل بھی تعمیر کرنا ہے (جو کہ ہر انسان کا حق ہے) ان کے پاس کوئی ہدف نہیں ہے، ملک کی سیاست نے ان کو کوئی امید بھی نہیں دلائی، بنگلہ دیش یا نیپال میں جو سیاسی حالات رہے ہیں اس میں عسکری قیادت کی رخنہ اندازی نہیں تھی اس لیے وہاں حالات بھی پنپ گئے اور مسائل کی نشاندھی بھی ہوئی ہمارے یہاں تو معاملہ یہاں پر ہی آکر رُک گیا کہ بلی کے گلے میں گھنٹی کون باندھے ۔۔۔۔ عمدہ تجزیاتی اور معلوماتی مضمون 👏👏👏
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