"Speakers at the symposium included lawyer and former MNA Aitzaz Ahsan, who attempted to evoke the memory of the lawyers’ movement." - Photo courtesy: British Council

ISLAMABAD: “Pakistan,” stated Dr. Nadeem Ul Haque, Deputy Chairman of the country’s Planning Commission, “is in a perpetual crisis.”

Such words do not make for an auspicious start to a symposium titled: Youth in Action for Global Change, organised by the British Council in Islamabad on January 18, but Haque’s honesty was a welcome change from the usual rhetoric uttered by representatives of the government.

The two-day regional symposium saw students and members of various organisations coming together at the swanky Islamabad Club, discussing ideas and research pertaining to development, education and radicalisation. The organisers also put up workshops to help the participants liaison with members of youth organisations from other countries, such as UK, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Speakers at the symposium included lawyer and former MNA Aitzaz Ahsan, who attempted to evoke the memory of the lawyers’ movement. “Not a blade of grass was harmed by the lawyers!” announced Ahsan, as he tried to paint the lawyers as a non- violent group. Ironic, considering one recently witnessed over 200 lawyers hugging and heralding Mumtaz Qadri, Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer’s assassin.

Ahsan, however, did leave one with a point to ponder over, “The generation that has preceded the current one was more about slogans and speeches than action.”

As the day progressed, Yasin Janjua, the National Project Manager at the Planning Commission, shared his recommendations for helping the youth of the country, including development of the social infrastructure and providing business development services. His recommendations did not quite gel with Haque’s earlier announcement of Pakistan having had a fiscal crisis for the past 32 years.

But while one had been promised change and hoped for inspirational speeches, the speakers left much to be desired. It appeared as if many panelists associated with development projects and NGOs had recycled the presentations given to donors, as opposed to the youth that they were meant to inspire. It was development speak, at its best. Phrases such as “commonality of view point" and "alternative model of influence" were thrown about with such ease without realising that most of the participants did not study English as their first language.

While it was heartening to see that many youth-driven organisations were working in various sectors to create a change in their countries and bridge communities, very few speakers managed to connect with the audience.

Day one of the symposium was also host to the session on the youth and radicalisation. The keynote speaker Maajid Nawaz, a former member of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir (HuT), began the session with a speech on the lines of “shock and awe”. Recounting his experiences with the militant group and the circumstances that led to his arrest and his renouncing the hard-line ideologies espoused by groups like HuT, Nawaz highlighted how the world had become polarised at the hands of extremists.

While speakers from Nepal and Balochistan spoke about the causes that drove the youth towards radicalisation, it was the Afghan government’s Education Advisor Abdul Mobin Quraishi’s story that moved many in the audience. Talking about how his brother had been shot multiple times and left for dead, Quraishi recalled how it had taken his family a week to find his brother’s body. Quraishi stressed on the importance of funding education, as opposed to spending money on foreign troops stationed in the war-torn region.

The star on the second day of the symposium was noted educationist Bernadette Dean, currently Principal of St. Joseph’s School in Karachi, who highlighted how curriculum in schools had been subjected to the Islamisation process in the 1970s, and had purposely excluded non-Muslims in its emphasis on painting Muslims as the ideal citizens of the state. Badar Khushnood, representative of Google, highlighted how many in Pakistan were using social media in different ways: some who used Google maps during the recent floods to identify areas devastated by the floods, or those who are making use of social media to earn money.

Nazim Farhan, a member of the British Council in Bangladesh, cited statistics from the Next Generation report’s findings in Bangladesh, and emphasised how 70 per cent of the youth did not seek participation in community programs. “We are failing to integrate the youth in the system,” said Farhan, a statement that reminded one of the state of the youth in Pakistan. Farhan also mentioned how the youth in Bangladesh and Pakistan did not cite role models that they were inspired by, a pessimistic thought indeed.

As the symposium came to a close with participants presenting recommendations on the way forward and working towards becoming agents of global change, the sobering thought was how Pakistan has yet to focus on how to involve the youth in multiple avenues when it comes to the state’s role. Whether it is politics or development, the youth of Pakistan deserve much more than what the State currently offers.

With over 50 per cent of the youth in Pakistan facing multiple problems such as a crippled economy and a lackluster educational system, at the same time vulnerable to extremist ideologies that have already pervaded a significant segment of Pakistan’s society, it is time for the government to actively work on how to engage this generation, before it is too late.

Huma Imtiaz works as a journalist in Pakistan.