Report calls on both provincial, federal govts to invest in human capital and reform governance
A new study has painted a detailed and sobering portrait of youth in Balochistan, revealing a generation caught between soaring aspirations and grinding structural inequality, increasingly shaped by social media and shifting geopolitical currents.
The study, published in the Contemporary Journal of Social Science Review and titled, “Voice of Balochistan’s Youth: Identity, Development and Geopolitical Perspectives”, was led by Dr Siraj Bashir Baloch of the Department of Social Work at the University of Balochistan, Nomeen Kassi of the Department of International Relations at BUITEMS, and Dr Farah Naseer of the Department of Sociology at Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University, and was conducted through surveys and personal communications with youth across the province.
“The youth of Balochistan are not a problem to be managed, they are a resource being wasted,” Dr Baloch said.
“What we found is a generation that is aware, motivated, and capable, but systemically denied the conditions it needs to thrive. That is not a youth crisis. That is a governance crisis.”
Facebook remained the dominant source of news and information among respondents, accounting for 62% of media consumption, far ahead of religious institutions and websites at 15%, and newspapers at just 9%.
X followed in popularity for political discourse, while Instagram carved a niche among younger and female respondents. The picture was of a generation that was digitally connected, globally aware and increasingly frustrated.
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At the heart of that frustration lay a persistent gap between expectation and reality. A majority of respondents expressed deep dissatisfaction with employment opportunities, educational quality and access to healthcare, grievances the researchers described as symptoms of institutional weaknesses and uneven resource distribution embedded across the province.
Kassi, whose work focuses on international relations, emphasised the geopolitical dimension of these domestic failings. “When young people in Balochistan look outward, at China, at the United States, their perceptions are not formed in a vacuum,” she said.
“They are filtered through lived experiences of exclusion. A youth who has never benefitted from development will view every foreign actor with suspicion, and rightly so.”
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) emerged in the study as a deeply contested subject. Youth perceptions of China were mixed: while many viewed the country as a vital development partner, others remained sceptical about whether local communities were seeing real benefits.
One respondent captured this tension directly, noting that China was seen as a development partner, but the benefits were not equally reaching local communities. The study recommended mandatory employment quotas of at least 80% for Baloch youth in CPEC-linked projects, alongside far greater transparency in contracts and community consultation.
Perceptions of the US were similarly divided; some saw Washington as a gateway to education and opportunity, while others associated its regional policies with inconsistency and interference. India, by contrast, drew near-uniformly negative sentiment, shaped by longstanding security tensions and national narratives that framed the neighbouring country as a strategic threat rather than a potential partner.
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Dr Naseer, a sociologist whose research centres on women and marginalised communities, drew attention to what she called the study’s most underreported finding. “We keep talking about Balochistan’s youth as if they are one undifferentiated mass,” she said.
“But the data shows that female respondents have distinct platform preferences, distinct aspirations and distinct experiences of exclusion. Any policy that does not account for gender is going to fail half the population before it even begins.”
Researchers warned that the rapid spread of misinformation across WhatsApp and YouTube was actively distorting how youth understood complex geopolitical and developmental realities. The study called urgently for digital literacy programmes to help young people of the province evaluate online content more critically, a recommendation Dr Naseer considered inseparable from broader educational reform.
Despite the weight of these findings, the study firmly resisted a pessimistic conclusion. Youth in Balochistan were not, the authors argued, inherently prone to radicalisation or instability. Their aspirations were overwhelmingly constructive, centred on education, employment and meaningful civic participation. A majority of respondents favoured dialogue over force in resolving conflicts, signalling a constituency genuinely ready for peace, if given real opportunity.
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“That is the finding that should define every policy conversation about this province,” Dr Baloch said. “These young people are not asking for revolution. They are asking for a job, a degree and a government that listens. The question is whether anyone in Islamabad, or Beijing, is paying attention.”
The report called on both provincial and national governments to invest in human capital, reform governance, establish formal youth councils and adopt district-specific development plans tailored to local realities.
It also addressed China directly, urging investment in social infrastructure, schools, clinics, water supply, alongside large-scale physical projects, and the creation of dedicated scholarship and exchange programmes for Baloch youth.
“CPEC can still be a story of shared prosperity,” Kassi concluded. “But right now, for too many young people in Balochistan, it reads as a story written by others, about a future that somehow never arrives for them.”
