Old and young must unite

The young in Pakistan are frustrated, and that frustration is understandable. They have grown up in an era of economic pressures, political noise and nonstop comparison with the rest of the world owing to global connectivity. They see flaws clearly, and they have the right to demand better. However, demanding better does not mean ignoring the value of experience.

Every generation believes it sees the truth more clearly than the one before it. That belief is not new, and it is not proof that older generations are useless. Progress has never come from wiping the slate clean. It comes from combining fresh ideas with hard-earned wisdom. Look at Pakistan’s position in the world today. Despite internal challenges, Pakistan remains globally visible diplomatically, strategically and politically.

After moments of regional tension, including conflicts with India, it was not ‘hashtags’ or ‘viral posts’ that shaped the outcomes. In fact, it was military leadership, experienced diplomats, and long-established institutions that handled all the pressure, avoided escalation, and rightly guarded the national interest.

Experience matters because Pakistan’s current global standing was not built overnight, and it was certainly not built online. It was built on the basis of decades of experience in global negotiations, strategic restraint and in understanding consequences of one’s actions. The leader-ship has lived through wars, sanctions, isolation and recovery. It knows what instability costs emotionally, economically and socially. The young have easy access to more information than any generation before them.

That is power, but it is also a risk. Speed surely does not equal accuracy, and confidence does not equal competence. Algorithms reward outrage, not nuance. Wisdom still comes from time, mistakes and responsibility. The young want freedom, and they should. But freedom survives only when paired with discipline and structure.

Regulations, institutions and slow decision-making exist because history proved what happens without them. When systems fail, the answer is not always to remove them; it is to fix them. Disengaging, leaving or tuning out does not challenge power; it hands power away. Real change means participating: voting, organising, learning how systems work, and pushing from the inside. Dismissing the system entirely seldom works, and one needs some level of maturity to understand even this simple principle.

The energy of the young matters. Their ideas matter. Their impatience can even be useful. But experience matters, too. Pakistan — any nation, for that matter — moves forward not when generations fight with each other, but when they work together. It is not at all old versus young.

It is your turn to step in, guided by those who have already seen what happens when things go wrong. That is how many countries survive. That is how systems work. Indeed, that is how nations flourish.

ABDUL SAMAD GAAD

KARACHI