A society aiming at genuine inclusion needs to make sure that its youth participate in all its affairs, views of the young people are included in development affairs, youth develop leadership skills and young people become active participants in the political process so that they can have their representatives for running state affairs. Pakistani youth have either remained marginalised or not played an active role in the political process for many years. This is largely due to institutional and policy constraints of the state, frequent military interventions since the inception of Pakistan, lack of political stability, and the rule of dictatorship in political parties that hinders youth from taking part in national politics. The dilemma with Pakistan is its continued inability to provide the appropriate political and economic frameworks for enhancing the productivity of its youthful population. In this respect, the future of Pakistan’s economic and social transformation depends on its ability to effectively transform its large youthful population into a demographic dividend. Today, Pakistan is faced with two issues. Firstly, the relationship between the youth and traditional politics is very poor and not substantial enough to ensure a democratic cohesiveness among the masses of Pakistan. Secondly, Pakistan has so far been unable to engage politically disenfranchised youth in our political system and environment. A recent survey titled Next Generation Goes to The Ballot Box was conducted by the British Council on young voters ranging between 18-29 years. This dynamic of young people is estimated to be 25 million registered voters, which is slightly more than 30 percent of the electorate. Among these 25 million voters, 13 million are going to vote for the first time. This study revealed very astonishing results. According to the survey an overwhelming 96 percent of the respondents said the country was heading towards the wrong direction. Only 29 percent of the youth surveyed preferred democracy as the best system for Pakistan. A large section of the respondents, about 40 percent, favoured sharia as the best system for ensuring rights, equality, social justice, freedom and stability. Alarmingly, one-third of youth preferred military rule to democracy. Inability to deliver and dynasty among political parties, trust deficit in the political system and deficient democratic norms put youth at the crossroads among democracy, sharia, and military rule, where support for democracy is the least among these alternative systems of governance. Both Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have increasingly been claiming the support of the youth. The PTI attracts youth with the single-point formula of ‘change’. As stated earlier, 96 percent of the youth said that the country is not heading towards the right direction. So, it is assumable that they are looking for change and can be prospective voters of the PTI. On the other hand, the PML-N, which previously did not seem to be involved in youth affairs, has made a strong comeback with youth sports festivals, laptop distribution schemes and solar panels. But Imran Khan here has an edge of not being politically tested ever before, whereas the PML-N has ruled 60 percent of Pakistan, i.e. Punjab for the last five years. The inclusion of young people in the political process through the tabdeeli razakar programme is another positive step that has been introduced by the PTI. But to be effective in the political process, these 25 million young people, who are slightly above 30 percent of the electorate, will have to march to the polling stations, wait in long queues for their turn and then cast their vote for the party they think is their true representative. Elections are to be held on May 11. Whether voters, specifically these young ones, will leave their houses in the hot summer, and wait in long queues at polling stations to cast their vote is a big question. In this era of hyper-connectivity, getting to know the repute of any of the candidates or manifestos of the political parties is not a big deal. The only problem is the commitment of these young voters towards casting their votes. Political parties have a major role to play to take confidence building measures for restoring the trust of the youth in the political process and demonstrating how politics can be relevant to the issues that young people are interested in. At the same time, the youth must come up with the recognition of their responsibility towards building a new, strengthened, stable, and prosperous Pakistan. Being the future leaders of Pakistan, this lays a heavy responsibility on our shoulders. We, as a nation, are going through the most difficult phase of our history. We should seek true knowledge and use it to benefit this great nation. We should accept the differences and contradictory ideas on an individual level, as that is the true essence of democracy. The writer is a freelance columnist