ISLAMABAD – Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Farhatullah Babar yesterday said that youth needs investment.
“The youth in Pakistan don’t need slogans, they need skills. They don’t need hollow promises, they need visible opportunities. Investment in the youth is no charity, it is investment in nation’s security and prosperity,” Farhatullah Babar said at an event on Youth International Day organized by the Shaheed Bhutto Foundation in Islamabad at SZABIST campus.
He said that the youth had the power to transform political discourse not only through their votes but also by their energy, optimism, voice and ability to mobilize digital spaces. He urged the Pakistani youth to utilize digital spaces in reaching out to the youth in the countries in the region to bring peace.
“The youth today needs peace more than any other thing for the flowering of their potential”. There are common issues of the youth in the region including enforced disappearances, climate disaster, internet shutdowns and the rise of the deep state. Amplifying the youth voices on these issues, he advised the youth while guarding against the burgeoning phenomenon of fake news and post truth.
Identifying the issues facing the youth in Pakistan he said that 260 million children out of schools, the neglect of higher education and whimsical shut downs of internet in name of ‘national security’ needed to be addressed most urgently adding, “whimsical internet shut down has further marginalized the periphery living in Balochistan, merged districts of KP, GB and AJK”.
Referring to the brain drain he said that a nation that exports its talented youth is only importing dependence.
He also asked the youth to imbibe values that transcend opportunities and investments in their future.
These values, he said, are the values of reaching out to others with empathy, seeking beauty and harmony in diversity.