Najam Publishes Book Chapter on “Pakistan’s Moment of Youth”
Prof. Adil Najam opens his chapter in an authoritative new book on Pakistan with the bold assertion that, “The future of Pakistan – good or bad – will be determined by its young; most especially by those Pakistanis who are between 15 and 29 years of age today.”
Najam, who is Dean Emeritus and Professor at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies and President of WWF-International, builds on this argument in his chapter titled “Pakistan’s Moment of Youth” in the book Pakistan: Search for Stability (Oxford University Press, 2024) which is edited by Dr. Maleeha Lodhi and brings together the leading scholars from and of Pakistan to look at the most critical challenges and opportunities facing the country. The editor of the book has been a former ambassador of Pakistan to the University Nations, to United Kingdom and twice to the United States.
Adil Najam’s chapter presents his new research that builds on his earlier work (2018) as lead author of the Pakistan Human Development Report on youth in Pakistan, and seeks to “understand what it means to be young in Pakistan today and what that might mean for Pakistan society and politics.” He develops a conceptual framework that identifies ‘youth’ not just as an age bracket but as an analytic category that is (a) defining, (b) dynamic, and (c) diverse.
Najam dissects the demography of the country “to demonstrate that this is Pakistan’s moment of youth. But also that it will be a long moment. For the next quarter century we are going to be talking about a young Pakistan, although who the young are in Pakistan will keep changing.”
Pakistan’s ‘youth bulge’ is palpable. Just over two out of every three Pakistanis today is below the age of 30 and just under one in every three is between 15 and 29 years of age (our definition of youth)…
Amongst other things, he calculates that because of this, “every election in Pakistan between now and around 2050 will be defined by the youth vote – including, of course, by their choice to vote or not.”
The chapter posits three propositions, “not as predictions or scenarios, but as choice points” that could influence what happens to this youth bulge and, therefore, to Pakistan:
Proposition 1: The young of today are defining tomorrow’s politics, but not always in ways we imagine.
Proposition 2: Give the young the ability to be young or expect a Pakistan tomorrow that is as divided as it is today. Or more.
Proposition 3: ‘Boom or Bust?’ It’s a choice.
The chapter analyzes each of these in detail, including identifying policy levers for the future. Najam concludes the chapter, thus:
Yes, the future of Pakistan – good or bad – will be determined by its young; most especially by those Pakistanis who are between 15 and 29 years of age today. But how it will be determined will depend on whether the young will be empowered to reach their aspirations or left to wallow in the acid of their fears. That, ultimately, is a choice that will be shaped by policy, by society, and above all else by the young themselves.
Adil Najam is Dean Emeritus and Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and also serves as the President of WWF-International. He served as the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies from 2014-2022. He is also a former Vice-Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). His research focuses on issues of global public policy, especially those related to global climate change, South Asia, Muslim countries, environment and development, and human development. Read more about Najam on his Pardee School faculty profile.