We have become remarkably good at making technology feel effortless. A few clicks give us an answer, a car runs without petrol and the cloud stores almost everything we could need. What remains out of sight is the water, energy and raw materials required to make these conveniences possible. As AI expands and industries race to build the next big thing, the environmental bill keeps growing in places most of us will never see. And even those of us who understand the costs are unlikely to stop using the technologies that make our lives easier.

In Islamabad, a protest can bring an entire city to a standstill before a single person takes to the street. Containers, closures and suspended services have become familiar parts of the state’s response to public dissent. The cost is carried by ordinary citizens whose daily lives are disrupted alongside the protesters. A democracy needs space for disagreement, and that space is built through dialogue, restraint and trust.

In 2019, Rs5,000 in pocket money could give a 17-year-old student in Islamabad some room to make ordinary choices. A shawarma cost around Rs50, hostel fees were below Rs10,000 and a monthly van fare was about Rs1,200. Today, even with an income of my own, a single journey across the city can cost Rs1,000 or more. As petrol rose from around Rs91 per litre in early 2019 to nearly Rs390 in September 2026, mobility itself became more expensive. What looks like an inflation story is also a story about who can still afford to move, work, study and participate in everyday life.

Article 140-A has required provinces to devolve political, administrative and financial authority to elected local governments since 2010, but meaningful devolution remains incomplete. A 2018 Senate committee estimated that only around 10% of the process had been achieved. More than fifteen years later, provincial control over finances, administration and local structures continues to limit municipal governments. The result is a democratic system where decisions affecting water, sanitation, roads and other daily services often remain far removed from the communities they affect.

Pakistan asks its young people to vote, speak up and engage, while giving them surprisingly few places to learn what meaningful participation looks like. Forty-two years after the nationwide ban on student unions, many young Pakistanis have grown up without the institutions through which earlier generations learned to organise and negotiate. In the 2024 general election, 48% of young voters cast a ballot. Sustained participation requires more than electoral turnout; young people need meaningful roles in schools, political organisations and local decision-making. Democratic agency grows through repeated opportunities to raise concerns, influence decisions and see institutions respond.

Pakistan’s youth made up 44% of registered voters in the 2024 general election, with voters aged 18–35 rising to nearly 56.9 million. Only 2.3% of lawmakers are aged 30 or below, revealing a wide gap between electoral weight and political representation. With 77 of 111 parties failing to meet the 5% legal threshold for women candidates, access to political power remains uneven across age and gender. The strength of Pakistan’s young electorate deserves representation in the institutions where political decisions are made.