In the last five years, we have witnessed a turn in the Pakistani political scene. One aspect which almost every party has incorporated into their narrative is the mobilization of the youth. The youth of this country make more than 31 percent of the population. This means that more than 31 percent of the population lies between the ages of 15 and 29 years.

It is important for any political party to not discount this number of people because this youth bulge has the potential to bring social and economic change in the country. The problem, however, is the extreme disconnect between the politicians of today and the youth of this country.

In an effort to politicize the apolitical youth of the country, what was lacking was research to actually connect with them

The ruling elite has not yet caught up with the advancements of time and the digital era and still very much practice politics the traditional way. The lack of representation of youth in their parties is also very problematic because there is a grave need for new and young faces who experience the reality of Pakistan like the youth and then form policies which affect them.

Ideally, the trajectory of politics in the country should have been the mobilization of the youth and the youth pushing for changes which affect them every day and educating the age-old politicians about their new reality in today’s Pakistan. However what has happened instead is that the politicization of the youth is such that they have adopted the status quo and accepted that the politics of the country has not modernized and political actors will form policies on their limited understanding of today’s youth.

The reason why this is problematic is that such policies will eventually leave a large chunk of the population alienated from politics because there is a lack of representation and also the lack of understanding for their lives

If we pick up the manifestoes of political parties, we will witness that many of the core issues which the youth are debating these days are absent from the conversations that political leaders are having.

The space of social media has quite evolved in the last couple of years and an entire culture is developing online which will shape the perceptions of our youth as well. There is greater emphasis on political correctness because the expectation is that their representatives need to be extremely mindful of what they are saying so that they do not disrespect people. However what we witness in politics is the complete opposite. Our politicians still do not respect people’s sensitivities and use shameful terminology on live television. These are people from a generation who did not think twice before making insensitive comments and they feel no remorse for their choice of words. This has gotten to a point where the Election Commision of Pakistan (ECP) had to intervene and ask at least three political leaders to be mindful of what they say.

Another phenomenon which has made its way to the conversations of the youth is the #metoo movement and the debate around harassment in the country

We witnessed an uprising on Facebook and especially Twitter where many came forward with their stories to highlight how common the issue is in Pakistan and how the victim shaming mentality plagues Pakistan. However, these conversations are nowhere to be seen in the discussions of the politicians who have not caught with these problems and still play with rhetoric to influence voters. The Meesha Shafi and Ali Zafar controversy left everyone shook. These politicians should have gathered together to understand these dynamics and develop legislation to address these issues in the future but no one paid attention, again isolating a large chunk of the population.

The only time that the digital space was considered was with the introduction of the cybercrime bill and that too has been butchered ruthlessly to fit the agenda of control. There is barely any space to voice dissenting views because they are considered anti-state instead of understanding that there is a sea of youth waiting eagerly to be heard.

It must be a cliche now to talk about women empowerment in the country. However, not everyone has joined the bandwagon and not everyone is ready to acknowledge that Pakistan is not a safe country for women and we need to do something about it. The Women Protection Bill which was introduced recently has not even been adopted by all provinces and solely on the basis of wanting to appease the radicals. This again negates the idea that the youth is active and wants their issues addressed but the politicians are only working to appease traditional pressure groups. They will ask women to not join political gatherings because men might pounce but no one realizes that these issues create hindrances for 50 percent of the population which are women. No one talks about women not being allowed to vote. They are at peace with the structures of the society as they are and especially because they are not relevant to the traditional political scene.

One problem which is very relevant to the youth of today is the increasing unemployment. More than just the need for technical colleges, what is required are job opportunities that can help them sustain their life

But the leaders of today still promise jobs like Pakistan has not progressed, and think of very limited avenues to make their lives better. There is little to no understanding of the development of the digital world in Pakistan and how that space itself can be used to provide job opportunities.

All of this will eventually get very difficult to manage. If the youth, who are portrayed as the future of the country, is to be politicized then their worlds also need to be understood and politics must evolve accordingly. One of the reasons why our institutions also fail to evolve is because aged people just do not want to give up lucrative positions and that hinders the growth of these institutions and the country as a result because no young thought crosses by them. The politics of this country needs representation of the youth and the diversity of their thoughts because at this point there is a stagnation of ideas and we hear parties using the same rhetoric again and again.

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cover image via dawn