YOUTH ACTIVISM, RELIGION, AND DEMOCRATISATION IN GILGIT-BALTISTAN, PAKISTAN: SECTARIAN CLEAVAGES AND CIVIC MOBILISATION

Abstract

The process of democratisation in the peripheral and conflict regions is prone to unequal development due to the limitation of hybrid governance, poor institutions, and sectarianism. Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), one of the strategic yet constitutionally ambiguous areas of Pakistan, is an example of such dynamics. Although the national politics and sectarian politics of Pakistan have been well researched, little of the literature has addressed the influence of youth in democratisation in GB. This paper fills that gap by posing two questions: (a) How does youth activism influence the process of democratisation in GB? (b) What is the role played by religious institutions and sectarian identities in enabling or limiting youth activism? The study relies on a mixed-methods approach and is based on survey data gathered via Google Forms which is a combination of Likert-scale responses with thematic coding of open-ended narratives. The findings indicate that, youth activism is a key accountability, rights-based mobilisation, and civic awareness driver in GB. Religious organizations were identified as having an ambivalent role in that they sometimes legitimised activism, preventing undivided unity and at other times, strengthening sectarian boundaries. Democratic space was also defined by respondents as fragile, which is influenced by state limitations, social forces, and infrastructural limitations. This paper finds that youth activism is an important driver of democratisation in Gilgit-Baltistan, but its transformative capacity is mediated by structural constraints and sectarian division. The study adds to the discussion of democratisation in a hybrid regime and highlights the importance of policies that strengthen the youth, promote cross-sectarian unity, and increase civic mobilisation.