In an era where war is no longer confined to borders and battlefields, a far more dangerous war is being waged – not with bullets, but with bytes. And the prime battleground for this war is the mind of the young Pakistani. Whether in Karachi or Karachi’s diaspora abroad, many of our youth are unknowingly caught in the crosshairs of a sophisticated and sustained campaign designed to reshape how they perceive their own country.
Every day, countless young Pakistanis scroll through social media feeds and digital platforms, forming opinions about Pakistan’s future, its institutions and its security landscape. What they often don’t realise is that much of the content they are consuming, presented in slick English accents and wrapped in the appearance of neutrality, is anything but independent.
There is a growing web of Indian-owned and Indian-sponsored media channels operating under the guise of international journalism. Outlets like WION and Firstpost, both owned and run by Indian corporate conglomerates, regularly push content that is visibly tilted against Pakistan. Their language is polished, their anchors fluent, their settings international – but their agendas are clear. Under the cloak of objectivity, they routinely discredit the Pakistan Army, question the credibility of national institutions and subtly erode the faith of ordinary Pakistanis in their own state.
What is even more disturbing is how these narratives are now being manufactured with the help of advanced technology. We are no longer only dealing with biased opinions. We are now confronted with AI-generated videos, deepfake interviews and fabricated speeches – all designed to look real, feel real and convince unsuspecting viewers of a reality that doesn’t exist. This is not speculation or paranoia. In 2020, the EU DisinfoLab exposed a vast network of over 750 fake media outlets, many of them impersonating reputable European publications, all working in sync to spread anti-Pakistan propaganda. That campaign ran uninterrupted for 15 years.
What started as a disinformation network has now matured into a psychological operation. The new goal is not just to malign Pakistan’s image globally; it is to infiltrate the hearts and minds of its own people, especially the youth. It is to create doubt where there was once clarity, shame where there was once pride and distance where there was once connection to one’s homeland.
And that is where the real danger lies. The youth of Pakistan – intelligent, educated, digitally connected – are precisely the target. They are not being asked to betray their country; they are simply being misled into questioning it, slowly, repeatedly and insidiously. This is the nature of psychological warfare: it does not shout; it whispers. It does not confront you; it befriends you. And over time, it makes you believe that you have arrived at your own conclusions when in fact, you have been subtly guided there.
It is time we as a nation confront this invisible war with clarity and courage. We must teach our young people to question not just the message but the messenger. We must equip them with the tools to recognise manufactured narratives, no matter how polished they may appear. And we must remind them that loving one’s country does not mean ignoring its flaws, but it does mean resisting efforts to dismantle its spirit.
Pakistan does not need blind followers. It needs aware, awake and critically thinking citizens – people who can distinguish propaganda from truth, agenda from authenticity and digital theatre from national reality. The battle is no longer just for land or diplomacy. It is for the soul of the Pakistani youth. And it is one we must not lose.
The writer is a former global corporate executive (Unilever, PepsiCo, Yum! Brands), a mental health advocate and a founding board member of Taskeen, a pioneering organisation focused on emotional well-being in Pakistan.
