By: Aftab Ahmad Goraya
The article “It Is Over” by Zorain Nizamani should not be dismissed as youthful frustration or generational exaggeration. It is a serious warning for existing political parties and political leaderships across the spectrum. Treating it lightly would be a strategic and moral failure. The piece reflects a deep and widening disconnect between those who hold power and a generation that no longer finds meaning in the language methods or promises of traditional politics.
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The central message is unambiguous, Generation Z is not waiting to be taught patriotism nor it can be mobilised through slogans, seminars, or symbolic nationalism. For them, patriotism is measured through outcomes, equal opportunity, economic security, freedom of expression, dignity, and the realistic possibility of a better future. When these fundamentals are absent, forced narratives of loyalty lose all credibility.
Unlike previous generations, Gen Z is acutely aware of how power operates. The internet and social media have dismantled information monopolies and exposed contradictions in real time. Attempts at censorship, digital control, or moral grandstanding are instantly recognised as tools of control rather than governance. This generation understands that regulating voices does not solve problems and that virtue signalling cannot replace competence.
The economic anxiety highlighted in the article is perhaps the most destabilising factor.
Skyrocketing living costs, unaffordable housing, shrinking job markets, and declining social mobility have convinced many young people that the system is structurally rigged against them. Add to this the erosion of civil liberties, the policing of dissent, and the cultural irrelevance of political leadership, and the result is not rebellion but withdrawal. Many no longer believe reform is possible, they simply want to exit socially, politically, or geographically.
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This is where political leadership must reflect honestly. You cannot coerce belief, tax hope into existence, or regulate trust back into a system. Generation Z does not fear authority the way older generations did nor do they rely on traditional media or institutional endorsements. Satire, memes, disengagement, and apathy have replaced outrage and that silent disengagement poses a far greater threat to political relevance than open opposition.
Yet while the article powerfully indicts existing power structures, Generation Z must also confront an uncomfortable contradiction of its own. Despite raising legitimate concerns about governance failure, censorship, economic collapse, and elite hypocrisy, a significant segment of Gen Z remains emotionally attached to or openly supportive of Imran Khan. This raises a fair and necessary question. If these grievances are genuine and they are.
How does one reconcile them with continued support for a leader who failed to deliver during his tenure as Prime Minister? Imran Khan had the narrative advantage, and unprecedented political space. His party has governed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for over twelve years, yet the province still struggles with governance quality, education outcomes, healthcare delivery, and meaningful economic transformation. The oft-claimed “model province” remains largely a political slogan rather than a measurable reality.
At the federal level, his government oversaw rising inflation, administrative paralysis, and confrontational politics that prioritised blame over reform. If Generation Z rejects narratives without performance, then performance must be evaluated consistently. If accountability is a principle, it cannot be selectively applied. And if failed systems are to be rejected, then emotional loyalty cannot be allowed to override evidence.
This is not a defence of the old political elite nor an attempt to rehabilitate discredited politics. It is a call for intellectual honesty. The existing political order is indeed exhausted but replacing one failed narrative with another simply louder, angrier, or more populist does not constitute change.
For political parties and leaders, the message is clear, adapt with sincerity or fade into irrelevance. And for Generation Z, the challenge is equally profound, move beyond personality driven politics and demand results over rhetoric. A generation that prides itself on seeing through illusions must also be willing to confront its own political contradictions.
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