THE Modi regime’s one-off defeat at the hands of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in India has got the Pakistani commentariat asking: why has there been no ‘Gen Z’ uprising in our own country? My response would be: have you been living under a rock?

True, there has been no youth-led movement in Pakistan that looks exactly like the ones that have made waves since July 2024 in Bangladesh, Nepal and now India. But there is much that has taken place before and after that must be put on the record.

One does not have to agree with the PTI’s politics to acknowledge that it was the first mainstream political party to explicitly mobilise tech-savvy young people. From digitised membership to the systematic use of social media, the PTI made ‘youth’ a bona fide political demographic.

Of course, the decision-makers were initially keen for ‘youth’ to join the PTI’s ranks, evidently supporting troll armies under the guise of waging ‘fifth generation warfare’. Then the online networks turned critical of these powers, clarifying that, for all of its might, Pakistan’s ruling class has never enjoyed unhindered mass consent of the kind that it craves.

Significant numbers of young people have........

© Dawn