Pakistan at 2047: National youth aspirations

Outline:

1. Introduction

The enthusiastic youth of Pakistan brimming with ambitions aspirates to form an equitable,
peaceful and more stable state in nearing era.

2. The history of Pakistan testifies that youth particularly the students have
always been in forefront into hour of trial and need.
• National youth of Pakistan: some statistics
• Role of youth organizations in Pakistan (Oxfam, PLYC, PYO)

3. What does the national youth of Pakistan aspire for?

3.1 Youth hopes for a world full of creative challenges and equal opportunities to
conquer all of them.

• Equality in education and health along with an international prospect and an insight into
the other cultures can instil a passion to achieve excellence.
• Provision of financial resources, digitalization and support in establishing self-
employment businesses will create correspondent opportunities of income generation.

3.2 Youth, being the engine of development strives for stable environment.

• The only stable state is the state in which all men are equal before the law. (Aristotle)
• Respect for basic human values with propagation of gender equality, ethics and high
standards of morality will eradicate disparities and end the social unrest.

3.3 Pakistani national Youth aspires for peaceful state in which all citizens are secure.
• Formation of community with Social harmony in the absence of hostility and violence.
• Case study of developing youth aspirations (DYA) working on empathy, security and
integrity.

4 What are the hurdles and what is desired?

• Rural Pakistanis feel they lack access to basic services like security, health and justice so;
policies should target those suffering from the aspiration failures.
• Generation of the exquisite communities can potentially elevate the aspirations levels.
• Identification of the drivers of change that can empower youth and hitch up their potential
for human development by standing against corruption, having a sharp eye on political
environment and recognition of the real leaders.

5 Conclusion
It takes a certain level of aspirations before one can get the actual advantage of the
opportunities that are clearly offered to him. (Michael Harrington)

This world is a continuous process of change and it brings a lot of distinctive and peculiar
features in which modernization in youth plays an impactful part. In the words explained by
James, Youth is the real joy, the little bird that has broken out of the eggs from nowhere and is
eagerly waiting to spread out its wings outside in the open sky of freedom, happiness and hope.
Every society in the world is identified by its youth which is the actual energy factor. While a
successful society is being established by the youth through its innovation, aspiration,
desperation and exudation. So, it can also be said that aspirations or hopes are the leading units
to bring a revolution for the youth. The history explains that every revolution either good or
bad has been caused by young generation of the respective nations because older men can only
declare the war; it is the youth that fight or die. According to chief of development policy unit,
UNDP Pakistan, 64 percent of the Pakistani nation is younger than 30 whereas, 29 percent of
Pakistanis are between 14 and 29 in the recent times. Pakistan now has more young people
than it has ever had in the history, and this is also forecasted to continue to increase until at
least year of 2050. In case of Pakistani national youth, it aspires for the formation of a stable,
peaceful and equitable sate at its 100. A state where there will be equal opportunities of
education, same health facilities for everyone and more availability of income resources with
financial projects for all. A community with stable and peaceful environment for practice of
any religion, security of basic human rights and regulation of rule of ethics and morality above
everything. Although, the new century has brought about much advancement along with the
change in trends of the national Pakistani youth. But, there are also some obstacles depending
upon low aspiration levels in different regions and genders due to social unrest and propagation
of mismanagements which are required to rule out through policies formations and generation
of high quality communities.

Starting with the history of Pakistan, It can be seen that struggle was started back in time when
the Muslims of sub-continent got harassed and tortured by the Indian government on regular
basis and were not getting their proper rights. Even at that time Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali
Jinnah had always shown great trust in the young generation as he declared them the agents of
future prosperity of Pakistan. The youth has also continued to be more vibrant and eager to
play important role in the progress and prosperity of the nation and the state. Pakistan has a
large population that can be considered as falling within the definition of youth. According to
UN estimation 103 million Pakistanis, or 63% of the total population, fall under the age of 25
years. However, as a result of endemic poverty and penury, the majority of youth in Pakistan
do not have any opportunity to experience a real childhood. While according to UNDP Pakistan
second national human development report, out of the 40% employed national youth, a very
small percentage has got higher education and there is no evidence of their skills standard and
status.

Besides that, many youth organizations have been working in Pakistan involving oxford
committee for famine relief (Oxfam) which was established in 1973. Its main duties involve
food provision in disaster conditions and youth employment generation. Another organization
is Pakistan lions youth council (PLYC) which was established in 1986 works for health, gender
and education. While Pakistan youth organization (PYO) is working for drug abuse and street
drug users since 1990. Talented Pakistani youth has started to bring in more innovative and
novel ideas than a matured population. The science has helped older people to understand the
fact that after living a life of forty years and above, the brain is less likely to produce something
new and more revolutionary. Now we can see the youth working in across Pakistan in almost
every field of life with great success.

Now coming towards aspiration of national youth for Pakistan at 2047, they hope for a state
where everyone will enjoy the same opportunities. The best society provides each individual
with equal opportunity to float at his own level and perception. Education is the most important
field where equitable state is required. At the event of first Education Conference in November
1947, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah said, “The future of our State will and must
accordingly depend upon the type of education we give to our children and youngsters, and
also the way in which we bring them up as the future nationals of Pakistan". But according to
Pakistan National Human Development Report, 30 percent of the total young population are
illiterate i.e. not being able to read or write. Only 6 percent of them have 12 years or more of
the education. Similarly, health is the basic necessity of life. The principle that each individual
is entitled to have an equal opportunity to get benefit from any of the public health care system
is required to be followed.

In addition, the national youth strives for availability of equal events of income generation.
Employment ratio and financial stability are the key factors to the formation of equitable state.
It will help to create awareness about responsible and safe behaviour of youth, provide them
with friendly and health care counselling and some other guidance facilities. In the words of
John F. Kennedy, all of us do not possess equal or same talent, but all of us should have an
equal opportunity to develop and grow our talent in future. By getting equality, youth will be
encouraged to make efforts for undertaking the voluntary social services. Affirmative action
(AA) is being taken in Pakistan which is an effort to remove the unfair and discriminative
practices in the organizations. Provision of equal grounds for females, individuals with
disabilities, poor, underprivileged classes and minorities as a logical step towards equal
employment are the aspirations of national Pakistani youth. It has been observed
that equal employment opportunity practices play an important role in maintenance and
creation of work and life balance that declare the result of enhanced ability, engagement rate,
interest and effectiveness of employees ratio.

Secondly along with the equitable society, a stable environment is the hope of national
Pakistani youth. There is no denying of the fact that stability brings success and success brings
stability. It comes from promotion of basic human rights, moral values and eradication of
gender inequality. Aristotle has explained that the state cannot be considered as an ordinary
community. It is the highest of all the communities and naturally its purpose should be the
highest or supreme of others. So, it is evident that like all other associations, the state is also an
association. But its purpose is a little different from that of other associations. It actually enjoys
the highest rank or position in the society or a social structure of community. As said by Dr.
Sesus, unless someone like you cares about a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better or
improve. It’s never. So, stability can support a child to get flourished in their home, school and
community. It also reduces the impact of any difficulties which they have already had to endure
or any other compounding issues. A stable home, a stable school, a stable society enables
children and young people to form positive trusting relationships around them so they can
thrive stable and strong relationships with respective professionals make themselves able to
contribute towards helping children and young people to get ready to success.

Thirdly, the Pakistani national youth strives for peaceful state as terrorism has spread to almost
every country and battle related deaths have been increasing from the last few years. Peace can
be explained as a concept of societal friendship and social harmony among individuals in the
absence of hostility, ferocity and violence. While in a social sense, peace is commonly used to
give the meaning of lack of conflict between inhabitants of a society. So, the collaboration and
mutual help leads the peoples towards stabling peaceful relations. This peace is the essence of
actual progress. Whenever any thing gets wrong or against one’s interest or wish then there
should not be any resort to physical violence but there must be some constitutional ways to
follow Because ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘might is right’ are the processes which are only
applied to animals but not to the human beings. If the violence and force are allowed to make
their way every time then the weaker, wricked or other agents of the society will find their
survival next to impossible. Therefore, the proper understanding and mutual cooperation are
the soul of any successful group activity though it is pluralistic in nature.

For example, developing youth aspirations (DYA) is actually a non-profit organization which
was established back in 2018 by a LUMS student who actually wanted to bring about positive
social change in Pakistani community through the education and training of youth. They work
on career counselling and information about career opportunities by sharing their personal
experiences help in improving the soft skills of the student through critical thinking and
also involved in fund raising for educational and medical expense. It is now rising as one of
the leading organizations for youth development and progress. Such other organizations are
required to fulfil the aspirations of youth in near future. These organizations can help in
developing your own clear vision of where you want to go and how your goals can be followed.
It will also be helpful in describing the future to others in simple language with purposeful
guidance capabilities. Because tomorrow's progress is always linked with today's effort no
matter how small or little it is. Many wonderful things can be done in a single day of life if we
don't always make that day tomorrow in any sense.

But all these aspirations are facing a lot of hurdles in the current scenario of Pakistan. Initiating
with primary concern i.e. lack of facilities in rural areas. The major proportion of the youth is
majorly skewed in the favour of urban areas in general and large cities specifically. As majority
of Pakistan's population live in villages and backward areas. Most of them don't have their own
vision and they don't understand importance of their votes which later on affects Pakistan's
overall progress and development on large scale. But there are also some educated people in
such areas that can play their vital role in convincing the local people and changing their
thought process. People in such areas don't have access to internet and cable news channels.
In addition. Pakistani media is getting rule over every person by educating about each and
every aspect of life but they are also doing nothing specifically for youth. They can form such
platforms in which they can hire the services of youth for highlighting and solving different
sort of problems of society and the result will definitely be good if the rural youth become able
to access the main stream media and we get opportunities to successfully mobilizing them then
Pakistan will surely be at the place where we want to see it.

Secondarily, generation of high exquisite communities is required to raise the aspiration level
in common man. Our youth does not lack in ideas and vision for changing our own society but
proper guidance is not being available to them. The process of bringing change should be
started from our schools and colleges at basis education level then there should be different
student organization in every school, colleges and university levels of Pakistan which should
be supported from the elders for the services they will render for making a change at both
national and international levels. Guidance should be provided to stand against corruption as
our bad luck is that most of the renowned leaders are corrupt and we, as a nation remain silent
on everything. Even the youth ministry in Pakistan is not aware of what actually the ministry
is about. Although they can captivate the youth in every project so they can be aware of our
capabilities and achievements.

At the end, it can be said that Pakistan’s youth is the core and trunk of the tree of the nation
who aspires for a state with equal opportunities, stable environment and peaceful community
at 2047 along with respect for everyone, preference to the national causes, social harmony and
mutual cultural flow among them. Though the youth of Pakistan is still under its formative
phase, but they have the capability to increase the immense production processes and capacity
to provide considerable training to the masses in all parts of the country in general. In order to
establish an inclusive and comprehensive roadmap for the development of our youth, it is
highly exigent to assess beyond just simple narrative of stating education, engagement and
employment participation level and dig cavernous into the actual root cause of this status-quo.
Because whenever a person rises up with something new in his mind then it is pressed down
and called as being a rebellious thought.