Editorial
The growing desire among Pakistanis to leave the country reflects a painful national reality where citizens no longer feel protected by the state and no longer believe that their fundamental rights are secure, and this sense of national depression is now visible not only among young people but also among experienced civil servants, public officials, and private sector professionals who once saw their future inside the state but now feel cornered by uncertainty, fear, and a collapsing social order, and the continuous changes in constitutional structures have further weakened public confidence because people see the Constitution not as a stable social contract but as a document altered repeatedly for political expediency, and when amendments like the Twenty Sixth the Twenty Seventh and now a possible Twenty Eighth are introduced within a year it creates the perception that the legal foundation of citizenship itself is unstable, and this instability feeds the larger crisis of trust that pushes Pakistanis to look abroad for safety and dignity.
Everyday conversations with young people reveal a disturbing sense of suffocation where they express openly that they do not feel they can breathe freely in their own country because their civic freedoms are threatened and their economic opportunities shrink, and while financial difficulties play a role the deeper reason is political insecurity because people believe that their rights can be suspended without warning and that the institutions responsible for protecting liberties are themselves under fear or control, and this absence of a trustworthy system creates an emotional and psychological burden that affects the entire society leading to silent suffering and collective anxiety, and the result is a dangerous disconnect between citizens and the state which weakens national belonging.
Pakistan must recognise that no society can remain stable if its people live under fear and suffocation and no state can progress if its talented citizens believe their future is safer abroad than at home, and those who exercise de facto power in the state must understand that governance without legitimacy only creates deeper instability because a healthy society cannot be built through coercion but through trust dignity and constitutional certainty, and unless Pakistan restores confidence in its social contract protects fundamental rights and ensures real civil liberties the exodus of young minds will continue harming the state far more than any external challenge because losing citizens is the most irreversible loss a nation can face.
