HYDERABAD: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) chairman and Federal Education Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has said that the world is going to make at least one billion people irrelevant in future if they do not keep pace with changing times.

He said this while addressing a ‘youth convention’, organised by the MQM-P, at Bagh-i-Mustafa in Latifabad on Sunday evening.

Party leaders said the MQM-P wanted to take right direction and keep youth relevant at a historic moment when the entire world was going to change through artificial intelligence (AI).

A large number of people, mostly youth, attended the programme. The crowd was energetic and enjoyed national songs followed by a qawwali session. The party has apparently designed the convention in a way to connect more and more youth with it.

MQM-P ‘buries’ quota system through massive youth convention, says Kamal

Dr Siddiqui congratulated the party for organising such a massive convention attended by youth of different identities. The purpose of gathering youth was not political, but it was a national responsibility of the party, he said.

“A conversation with youth has become need of the hour as they are 16 million out of total Pakistan’s population,” he remarked. Pakistan stood at a critical juncture, he said, adding that the world was going to make at least one billion people irrelevant in future if they didn’t keep pace with changing times.

“We have to make sure that youths stay relevant in changing world,” he said. The AI would upset everything and only three to four years were left before people protect themselves.

He said the Hyderabad’s university was going to be established after 77 years, which would open new vistas for students by offering them artificial intelligence and cyber security subjects.

Speaking on the occasion, senior party leader Syed Mustafa Kamal pointed out that the present MQM-P leadership faced the quota system and youth were still asked to prove whether they had urban or rural background when it came to seeking employment or education in Sindh. He said the Sindh government had linked everything with the quota.

“What we have done for youth is something exceptional and we are guiding youth explore opportunities for which there is no quota,” he said and added that the party would enable them become self-employed or even employers.

“It is a gift of the MQM-P for youth,” he said and added that while parties had failed to come up to the expectations of urban populace, it was only the Muttahida that cared for it.

He said the convention was a ray of hope for the youth and no major political party could pay attention to it. “The MQM-P has buried the quota system through this convention today and our youth will get jobs abroad and run online businesses now,” he said.

Dr Farooq Sattar’s in his address rephrased old MQM’s slogan as ‘Pehlay Rozgar Bad Mein Baat – Hyderabad”.

He said the convention was a message for those who thought people were disappointed. He said e-commerce would take Hyderabad’s identities of bangles, Bombay Bakery cakes and Haji’s Rabri to a new height.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2024