There exists a peculiar national consensus in Pakistan, rarely articulated but universally understood: life here is not lived so much as navigated. The state, with its erratic electricity, its labyrinthine paperwork, and its chronic institutional fatigue, offers the Gen Z little in the way of reliable scaffolding. And yet millions not only survive but flourish not by fighting the circumstances, but by learning, with a certain weary brilliance, to handle them. What follows is lesson in that art; some will strike the reader as cynical, others as merely honest. All of them, I submit, are true.
Believe in appearances — for appearances are believed in. In Pakistan, people judge the book by its cover with a rigour that would embarrass a bibliophile. Your grooming, your dress, your manner of speech constitutes, quite literally, half your success. Enter a shop or an office well-presented, and you will receive both respect and service. Do not mistake this for vanity; call it presentation. The world opens its doors to those who look as though they belong behind them.
Treat relationships as capital. Dismiss the word sifarish if you must, but only to replace it with its respectable cousin: public relations. In an hour of need, it is human beings who come to the aid of human beings. Cultivate genuine connections, for in this country a single telephone call can accomplish what months of humiliation at a counter cannot. The network is not a substitute for merit; it is the medium through which merit, too, must often travel. Guard your happiness jealously. The evil eye — nazar — is not superstition here; it is social diagnosis. Keep your salary, your success, and your plans for the future discreet. Celebrate quietly, for in silence there is peace, and in noise there is envy. The colleague who announces his promotion over dinner has invited a dozen small cruelties upon himself by dessert.
Help yourself. Abandon the wait for a saviour — the state will not arrive before the water tanker does. The system is slow, and the wise citizen builds his own alternatives: the generator, the solar panel, the private physician. Self-reliance is not merely practical; it is prophylactic. The man who has arranged his own contingencies is largely immune to despair. Sweeten your tongue. A harsh tone ruins in Pakistan what honeyed speech rescues. 'Bhai jaan' and 'mohtaram' open doors that formal application cannot. Humility, paradoxically, is the more powerful weapon; anger is a blunt instrument that wounds its wielder first.
Life here is not lived so much as navigated. The state, with its erratic electricity, its labyrinthine paperwork, and its chronic institutional fatigue, offers the Gen Z little in the way of reliable scaffolding. And yet millions not only survive but flourish — not by fighting the circumstances, but by learning, with a certain weary brilliance, to handle them.
Treat English as a tool, not a totem. Stop being intimidated by the language and start acquiring it. It is the international tongue and the key to advancement; a well-argued case in English carries disproportionate weight in boardrooms and courts alike. Make it part of your professional arsenal — not because it is superior, but because it is useful. Health before all else. Given the condition of public hospitals, wisdom lies in never needing one. Mind your diet and your exercise so that the doctor's waiting room remains a rumour. Here, truly, prevention is not merely better than cure — it is often the only cure available.
Avoid argument. Whether on the road or on social media, debate yields nothing but blood pressure. Every man in this country is convinced of his own rectitude; the gentle 'you are quite right,' uttered with a smile as one passes on, is the cheapest insurance for mental tranquillity yet devised. Plan financially. Inflation is a fact; stewing over it is not a strategy. Direct your energy toward increasing your income rather than lamenting prices. And do not hoard savings as idle cash — hold them in something whose value grows with time, be it gold or land. This is not speculation; it is elementary economic self-defence.
Hope for the best and file a Plan B. Optimism, unaccompanied by preparation, is merely procrastination in disguise. Keep a second source of income or an emergency fund, and sleep that endangered national resource will return to you. Love your relatives at a distance. Affection for kin is a duty; confiding in them your finances and private affairs is an error. Respect flourishes in boundaries. Maintain such closeness as can be gracefully sustained on both sides — no more, and no less.
Let lawfulness be your strength. Do not break the law; weaponise your compliance with it. Wear the helmet, carry the licence, pay the tax and walk free of the low-grade terror that governs the non-compliant. Obeying the law is not submission; it is self-protection. Value skill above the degree. The degree will get you through the interview; the skill will keep you in the chair. Learn something the market actually wants, for the market, unlike the examination hall, cannot be bluffed.
Always honor time. Punctuality is scarce enough in this country to constitute distinction. The man who respects other people's hours is trusted with their affairs; trust, once accumulated, compounds like interest. And practice gratitude. For all its tribulations, Pakistan grants its Gen Z blessings that empires cannot manufacture: family, food, freedom. Complaint diminishes blessings; gratitude enlarges them. A positive disposition is not naivety — it is the last asset no inflation can erode.
A mentor of mine once offered the image that settles the matter. Pakistan, he said, is like the rose: thorns it has in abundance, but also a fragrance without equal. The art of living here consists in shielding one's hem from the thorns while drawing deep upon the scent. To be Gen Z in Pakistan is not a hardship, properly understood. It is, rather, a continuing education in being smart and in a country that asks so much of its people, that education may be the most democratic institution we have left.