annashay 
On November 20, as the world commemorates Universal Children’s Day under the evocative theme “Listen to the Future,” Pakistan stands at a defining crossroads. With a demographic profile where nearly half the population, approximately 112 million souls, are under the age of 18, the “future” is not a distant concept for Pakistan; it is the overwhelming present. Yet, in 2025, the state’s relationship with its youngest citizens remains a paradox of historic legislative victories obscured by a grim fog of economic austerity, climate vulnerability, and implementation failures.
This year’s theme, mandated by the United Nations and UNICEF, demands more than the passive protection of children; it calls for their active participation in the decisions that shape their world. For Pakistan, this is a challenging proposition. While the state has demonstrated the capacity to write laws that “listen” to international standards, its ability to listen to the cries of a child in a heatwave-struck classroom or a polio-affected district remains compromised.
The Legislative Shield: Progress on Paper: The year 2025 will be etched in Pakistan’s legal history for the passage of the Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Act 2025 (Act No. XI of 2025). By setting the minimum legal age for marriage at 18 for both boys and girls in the federal capital, the state has finally aligned its definition of childhood with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
This legislation is more than a bureaucratic update; it is a socio-cultural confrontation. It criminalizes not just the act of child marriage but the facilitators, the guardians and religious officiants, who perpetuate it, signaling a state intent to dismantle the machinery of tradition that robs girls of their childhood. However, the legislative map of Pakistan remains fractured. While Islamabad and Sindh have embraced the 18-year threshold, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan lag behind, creating a “rights lottery” where a girl’s protection depends entirely on her geography.
The Economic Betrayal: An Education Emergency: If legislation is the shield, the budget is the sustenance. Here, the narrative of 2025 turns dark. Despite Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declaring an “Education Emergency” in May, the federal budget for FY 2024-25 delivered a devastating contradiction: a 44% slash in education allocations, dropping to PKR 58 billion.
This fiscal retrenchment, driven by the crushing weight of debt servicing, has direct, human consequences. The number of Out-of-School Children (OOSC) has ballooned to a staggering 26.2 million. In a year where the global community asks nations to “listen to the future,” Pakistan has effectively muted millions of them by denying them the literacy required to speak. The economic policy reflects a prioritization of short-term solvency over long-term human capital, trapping the next generation in a cycle of poverty before they can even enter a classroom.
The Climate Crisis: The New Barrier to Rights: A distinct and terrifying trend in 2025 is the emergence of climate change as a primary violator of child rights. The right to education is no longer just about funding; it is about atmospheric survival. This year alone, schools across Punjab and Sindh were shuttered twice, first due to lethal heatwaves in May, and later due to hazardous smog levels that turned Lahore into the most polluted city on earth.
Climate change is eroding the academic calendar, creating a phenomenon of “learning poverty” driven by environmental collapse. While the state struggles to respond, the youth are not silent. At COP29 in Baku, young Pakistani activists like Zunaira and Didar Ali took the stage, demanding that climate finance be “child-responsive”. Their presence at global forums highlights a critical shift: Pakistani children are not merely victims of climate change; they are becoming its most articulate adversaries. The question remains whether the Ministry of Climate Change will integrate these voices into the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as promised.
The Survival Agenda: Polio and Malnutrition: The most fundamental right under the UNCRC is the right to survival, and in 2025, Pakistan is fighting a rearguard action. As one of the last two reservoirs of the wild poliovirus, the country has seen a resurgence, with the case count rising to 30 as of November 2025 following a new case in Torghar.
This resurgence is not strictly a medical failure but a socio-cultural and administrative one. It speaks to deep-seated community mistrust and security gaps that prevent vaccinators from reaching every child. Simultaneously, the silent crisis of malnutrition continues, with one in two children under five suffering from stunting. While social safety nets like the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) have been expanded, high food inflation continues to outpace these interventions, leaving millions of households unable to afford a minimally adequate diet.
Implementation: The Gap Between Policy and Reality: The chasm between policy and practice is nowhere more evident than in the realm of child protection. On a positive note, the Punjab government demonstrated significant political will by allocating Rs 297.9 crore to the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB), a massive 355% increase aimed at expanding rehabilitation services. This is a laudable example of putting money where the mandate is.
However, the technological solutions touted by the state, such as the Zainab Alert Response and Recovery Agency (ZARRA), faced scrutiny in 2025. While the system received 688 cases in 2024, the data revealed a disturbing operational fatigue, clogged by 683 “fake” alerts that undermine the urgency of law enforcement. Furthermore, the grim death of 13-year-old domestic worker Iqra in Rawalpindi served as a horrific reminder that laws banning child labor remain toothless behind the closed doors of private residences. The sanctity of the “private sphere” in Pakistani culture continues to trump the safety of the child worker.
Socio-Cultural Shifts: Listening to the Future: Despite these systemic failures, the spirit of the 2025 theme, “Listen to the Future”, is alive in the resilience of Pakistan’s youth. In Peshawar, the Directorate of Social Welfare marked Universal Children’s Day by handing the microphone to adolescent girls, allowing them to lead panel discussions and theater performances about their rights. These localized events are crucial; they challenge the gerontocratic norms where children are seen but not heard.
Moreover, the student body is growing restless. The protests on February 9, 2025, demanding the restoration of student unions, represent a generation eager to engage with the democratic process. They are demanding the right to association, a fundamental liberty under the UNCRC that has been denied to them since 1984.
Conclusion: As Pakistan navigates the remainder of 2025, the scorecard on child rights is mixed. The legislative progress in Islamabad and the budgetary commitments in Punjab prove that change is possible. Yet, the 30 polio cases, the 26.2 million out-of-school children, and the smog-choked playgrounds tell a different story.
To truly “Listen to the Future,” Pakistan must do more than celebrate a day. It must insulate child-related budgets from austerity shocks, harmonize marriage laws across all provinces, and treat the climate crisis as a child rights emergency. The future is speaking loudly, in the protests of students, the speeches of climate activists, and the silence of the empty classrooms. It is time the state listened.
