“It is not over until it is over, yet a few claim that youth have already checked out.” An opinion piece recently went viral on social media claiming that youth, loosely framed as Generation Z and Generation Alpha, have “checked out”, that it is over for the older generation in power, and that patriotism is dead among the young. This argument, while rhetorically charged, rests on assumptions that do not withstand empirical scrutiny, historical context, or realistic political analysis.

Youth frustration is not unique to this decade or to any one country. In the early 20th century, youth activism in Europe and South Asia helped define anti-colonial struggles. In the 1960s and 1970s, student movements in the United States, France, and India challenged entrenched power structures and reshaped social norms. Historically, periods of crisis and transition have triggered youth engagement rather than extinguished it. Even if one points to the millions of young people leaving countries like Pakistan over the past two years, it must be considered alongside the reality of population growth, which continues to produce a vast and politically consequential youth cohort at home.

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Young people in Pakistan have historically shaped political trajectories, from the student-led anti-Ayub Khan protests of 1968–69, which contributed to his downfall, to vibrant student unions in the 1980s that resisted martial law and authoritarianism. Youth engagement here has oscillated between electoral participation, protests, and intellectual dissent, a pattern deeper than any meme culture or Spotify playlist. Painting youth as apathetic or disengaged is therefore a superficial reading of decades of political sociology.

Contrary to claims that Pakistani youth are disconnected........

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