Pakistanis are very emotional when it comes to politics and religion. I might not be wrong to say that most of us even do not offer prayers five times a day. But when there is a protest on the name of religion, of course, we are in the mainstream. Similarly, we are a nation, which has been tasting the same politicians time and again. We are a nation that can be easily instigated for any political cause. In seventy-one years, we could not learn even the basics of democracy that is listening to the opponent’s opinion.
National Youth Assembly of Pakistan is considered to be the most prestigious platform for the youth of Pakistan. It is an opportunity for the youth to learn and improve leadership qualities. Recently, the Oath-taking ceremony of the newly selected members of the National Youth Assembly (NYA) took place in Jinnah Town Hall Lahore on December 6, 2018. President of the National Youth Assembly Hanan Ali Abbasi and the Provincial Leader Zohaib Khan Niazi were there to welcome the new members of the assembly. Moreover, Punjab Information and Culture Minister, Fayyazul Hassan Chohan was invited as the chief guest of the event.
I was there to see the passion of the youth of Pakistan – actually my fellows – who are going to be the future leaders of Pakistan. Unfortunately, my overall enthusiasm was dampened shortly after taking the oath. The honorable chief guest embarked on his speech with the name of Almighty Allah and proper references to the Islamic history, and ended it with the traditional impolite words of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) – chor, lootera, and so on. He continued praising Prime Minister Imran Khan and criticizing the PML-N leadership. He went to the extreme that he started personal attacks on former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz.
One member who was sitting just beside me passed a comment “This man is commonly known for his abusive language to please his party – now government.” He used a metaphor, “He is the Fawad Choudhry of the Punjab government.” I wish Mr. Chohan could have heard this comment to have some idea of his character but then I realized Mr. Chohan is from PTI.
It seemed that Mr. Chohan was not the information minister of Punjab government but the spokesman of PTI. He forgot that he was talking to the members of the National Youth Assembly. Instead, he was speaking as if they were all the supporters of PTI or PML-N. By this, I do not mean that he should not have talked about politics. Instead, he should have put it in a polite way without any criticism. He should have talked to the young parliamentarians about the legislative process. He should have discussed the political norms. Anyhow, he cannot be blamed because he is a member of PTI – immature politics. It may be mentioned here that these youngsters are learning politics from Fayyazul Hassan Chohan or Fawad Choudhry, not from some senior ideal politicians.
Interestingly, it was reported on the mainstream media as impolite attitude from a young member of the youth assembly. But who was the first to start using impolite language? No doubt, the Youth Assembly members should not have responded to him in that way. They must have talked politely as it was expected. But as a matter of fact, there was no fault of these youngsters because there were in a learning stage. They all were there to learn the ethics of parliament. Of course, they might have committed mistakes. Therefore, Mr. Chohan, as a mature person must have treated them politely because he was invited as a role model for the young parliamentarians. In addition, it was a day for the young parliamentarians to learn the legislative process, not to know the political achievements of the PTI-led government.
There were two resolutions to be passed by the youth assembly. Unfortunately, the assembly could pass only one resolution and the second was not even discussed. Who is responsible for disturbing the overall session of the youth assembly? It is a bitter truth that we are worshipping different politicians. Despite, we should be objective for everything. We must focus on the state interests or the benefits of the whole country.
The writer is a political commentator and a public policy analyst. He tweets @khanzqasim