Shanzay Minhal
THEY say that desperate times call for desperate measures. But the question to ask should be: who is bringing these desperate times onto the world? Who is pulling the strings? How much truth is present in the information we consume? The numbers suggest that currently, at least 50 to 60 states are in an active conflict with adversaries within their states, inter-state fighting or with other countries. This is alarming. In the midst of such grave external threats, Pakistan has an ongoing war on terror and terrorist organizations operating from within and outside Pakistan – directly fueling chaos in Pakistan. But what is at the heart of every conflict and its escalation in the current world, is an unthinkably massive volume of false and misleading information.
This is the digital world and we are its residents. It is a monster that we created, fed it with love and now it’s ready to eat us all alive. Not to disregard all its benefits that humans consume with each passing day, but we have exhausted ourselves terribly by maximizing the utility of what this world of artificial intelligence has to offer. Even before evidence of a potential nuclear war between Iran and the US could come to light, more than 30 countries have issued war and crisis preparedness alerts. The world was alarmed. Then came the evidence, casting its haunting shadow over the residents of the world. It’s time to prepare, they said. Pakistan has mostly relied on diplomatic statements, once again, as the harbinger of peace. There is a whole campaign showcasing the impact on Pakistan in case of a potential nuclear attack on Iran. None of which has been endorsed by the government.
Social media is great, until it gets scary. Pakistan knows this. Pakistan is preparing for it. Tons of work is being done to use mass awareness tools across the country. The world may be falling apart or not. However, Pakistan must work on creating a nationwide shield of protection for its citizens, especially now when more than 60 percent of the population consists of youth. This can only be achieved if a unified effort is worked upon. Pakistan is not short on ideas on what needs to be done. The gap is that of governance itself.
Pakistan has about 117 million internet users and roughly 80 million social media user identities, according to Data Reportal’s Digital 2026 report. For millions of young Pakistanis, the phone is now newspaper, television and town square in one. It has also become their classroom. This classroom has no teacher. Pakistan’s youth urgently need digital media and information literacy, especially given the country’s security situation. A manipulated video or an anonymous account can reach a young person long before anyone has taught them how to question a source. Media literacy is therefore more than a media issue. It is part of national resilience.
The good news is that the foundations are being laid. Since November 2024, UNESCO, with the University of the Punjab and Media Foundation 360, has consulted widely on a National Media and Information Literacy Strategy and with the Higher Education Commission it has drafted a course outline for university media programmes. At a national dialogue in Islamabad in July 2025, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal called media and information literacy the first line of defence of every country and said the government would formulate a charter on it. The PTA has signed an agreement with Google on child online safety and an earlier PTA programme with TikTok and UNICEF trained more than 12,500 students, teachers and parents across 100 government schools.
The natural next step is to join these pieces up. Imagine one national programme with a clear owner. It may run on two tracks. The first is a shared national curriculum: how to verify a source, how algorithms and echo chambers shape what we see, how extremists recruit online, what our digital rights are and how to create content responsibly. This could be taught by trained teachers in Urdu and regional languages. The second track is a campaign across television, radio and social media carried out on campuses.
Teaching a generation to question before they share costs far less than repairing the damage when they don’t. Pakistan already has the strategy, the institutions and the urgency. What it needs now is a unified, centrally-led effort. This should aim to be the biggest digital media literacy campaign in Pakistan’s history. The reason is not the headlines. It is that the audience, more than 100 million people online, is massive and the world has more chaos and misinformation than ever before.
—The writer is contributing columnist.
