Irfan Mustafa

Pakistani youth wait for their turn for a Capital Development Authority (CDA) job entry test in Islamabad. — AFP/File Pakistan is a young country. Over 60% (150 teeming millions) of its people are under 30. Shouldn’t this be our greatest strength? A demographic dividend so powerful that it could launch us into a future of promise and prosperity? Yet, when I listen closely, I can’t help but wonder if we are really hearing our youth? Or have we, as a nation and as leaders, simply stopped caring?

If you handed two people the same paycheck, one might use it to escape poverty, while the other would remain trapped in it. The difference isn’t luck, talent or even opportunity but mindset. For generations, we’ve repeated the same economic gospel: work hard, get an education, find a stable job and save what you can. That formula once worked, but today it often leads to a lifetime of financial dependence disguised as stability.

Something extraordinary is happening in Pakistan, and at the centre of it stands COAS Field Marshal Asim Munir, a steady, disciplined figure steering the nation through its most defining transition in decades. Alongside Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, he is guiding Pakistan away from a culture of chaos and confrontation towards clarity, confidence and a pragmatic new direction.