Daily Times

LAHORE: Young students, academics, media and civil society representatives have stressed on the youth voting and the need for continued monitoring of implementation of manifestos.

They were part of the ‘Youth Dialogue on Democratic and Peaceful Governance and Sustainable Development’, organized by jointly Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) and UNDP Pakistan, on Tuesday.

In a dialogue, representatives of five major political parties of Pakistan were engaged with youth representatives in a robust discussion on how to bring together a cross-section of Pakistan’s youth to interact with key political parties and decision makers including Governments, elected representatives, think tanks, citizens groups and media on a number of themes.

PILDAT Joint Director Aasiya Riaz moderated the interactive dialogue. Youth speakers were from Youth Parliament Pakistan (YPP) Youth Provincial Assembly Pakistan (YPAP), National Entrepreneurship Program and belongs to different walk of life.

Youth representatives have highlighted issues in implementation of manifestoes, demanded quality education and employment, more sports facilities, madrassa reforms, entrepreneurship opportunities and lifting the ban on student unions.

They talked of access to fair trail for disabled, rights of non-Muslims and of transgender communities. They also highlighted greater representation opportunities for youth, the ticking time bomb of population, juvenile justice and sexual violence.

PILDAT President Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, said Pakistan has one of the highest proportion of youth population in the world. He said it is the need of the day to inspire youth to constructively engage in national affairs including political participation through informed voting based on objective review of party pledges.

Responding on behalf of PML-N, Senator Shaheen Khalid Butt said that PML-N had created two million jobs and aimed to create three million more jobs in the coming term, increased proportion of female students and faculty and allocated three billion rupees to support 1300 PhD students. He also claimed that PML-N had promoted entrepreneurship to support youth jobs in the country.

Faiza Malik of PPP said her party focused on eradicating ghost schools from Sindh and party’s aim in the future is to improve quality of education, creation of employment and youth development. She reiterated PPP’s promise to introduce vocational training centers to cater to unemployed youth. She also vowed to bring Youth to bring recognition to youth through talent hunts.

Walid Iqbal from PTI said the party had delivered on the 2013 promises in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including reforms in education, health, police and local government.

Another representative of political party, Mian Usman Javed of JI stressed on the importance of having gender specific courses which can better cater to youth and empower youth through promoting social entrepreneurship programmes, among others.

Rizwan Mumtaz Ali from PML talked about party’s governance performance from 2002-2007 and said party would reconnect its efforts for creation of jobs, youth development and other national issues.

Senior journalist Mujib-ur-Rehman Shami concluding the dialogue said that the dialogue provided an important opportunity of interaction, such forums should also be facilitated with top leadership of each political party and youth in the future.