Report urges provincial and federal governments 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 sky-high aspirations and crippling structural inequality, increasingly shaped by social media and shifting geopolitical currents.
The study, published in the Contemporary social science review journal and titled “The Voice of Balochistan Youth: Identity, Development and Geopolitical Perspectives”, was led by Dr. Siraj Bashir Baloch from the Department of Social Work, University of Balochistan, Nomeen Kassi from the Department of International Relations, BUITEMS and Dr. Farah Naseer from the Department of Sociology, Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University, and was carried out through surveys and personal communications with youth across the province.
“The youth of Balochistan is not a problem that needs to be managed, it is a resource that is being wasted,” said Dr Baloch.
“What we find is a conscious, motivated and capable generation, but one that is systematically denied the conditions it needs to thrive. That is not a youth crisis. It 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 gained a foothold among younger and female respondents. The image was that of a digitally connected, globally aware and increasingly frustrated generation.
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At the heart of that frustration is a persistent gap between expectations and reality. Most respondents expressed deep dissatisfaction with employment opportunities, the quality of education and access to health care, complaints that researchers described as symptoms of institutional weaknesses and an unequal distribution of resources entrenched across the province.
Kassi, whose work focuses on international relations, emphasized the geopolitical dimension of these internal fault lines. “When the youth of Balochistan look outward, to China, to the United States, their perceptions are not formed in a vacuum,” he said.
“They are filtered through lived experiences of exclusion. A young person who has never benefited 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 controversial issue. Young people’s perceptions of China were mixed: while many saw the country as a vital development partner, others remained skeptical 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 did not reach local communities equally. The study recommended mandatory employment quotas of at least 80% for Baloch youth in CPEC-linked projects, along with much greater transparency in contracts and community consultations.
Perceptions of the United States were equally divided; some saw Washington as a gateway to education and opportunity, while others associated his regional policies with inconsistency and interference. India, by contrast, generated almost uniformly negative sentiment, shaped by long-standing security tensions and national narratives that framed the neighboring country as a strategic threat rather than a potential partner.
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Dr. Naseer, a sociologist whose research focuses on women and marginalized communities, drew attention to what she called the study’s most underreported finding. “We continue to talk about the youth of Balochistan as if they are an undifferentiated mass,” he said.
“But the data shows that the women surveyed have different platform preferences, different aspirations and different experiences of exclusion. Any policy that does not take gender into account will fail half the population before it even begins.”
Researchers warned that the rapid spread of misinformation through WhatsApp and YouTube was actively distorting the way young people understood complex geopolitical and development realities. The study urgently called for digital literacy programs to help the province’s youth evaluate online content more critically, a recommendation Dr. Naseer saw as inseparable from broader education reform.
Despite the weight of these findings, the study steadfastly resisted a pessimistic conclusion. The authors argued that the youth in Balochistan were not inherently prone to radicalization or instability. Their aspirations were overwhelmingly constructive, focusing on education, employment, and meaningful civic participation. The majority of respondents favored dialogue over force in conflict resolution, indicating that the electorate is genuinely prepared for peace, if given a real opportunity.
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“That’s the finding that should define every political conversation about this province,” Dr. Baloch said. “These young people are not asking for a 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 calls on 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.
He also addressed China directly, urging investment in social infrastructure, schools, clinics, water supply, along with large-scale physical projects, and the creation of scholarships and exchange programs specifically for Baloch youth.
“CPEC can still be a story of shared prosperity,” Kassi concluded. “But right now, for many young people in Balochistan, this reads like a story written by others, about a future that somehow never comes for them.”
