February 24, 2006	Friday	Muharram 25, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Ms. Sumaira Malik has said that Prime Minister’s Youth Internship Programme and OIC Youth Conference would be organized soon.

She stated this while talking to representatives of NGOs and students here on Thursday.

The minister condemned the racist cartoons on behalf of 40 million youth of the country and stressed upon the youth to launch protests peacefully and calmly.

The representatives of NGOs and youth also condemned the cartoons and the attack on public and private properties and they assured the minister that such acts must be condemned and discouraged vehemently by the administration.

The secretary Youth Affairs Mr. Mahmood Saleem Mahmood briefed about the agenda of the meeting i.e. to share the ideas of youth to address their problem and initiate programme and activities for them and chanalize their energies for  the development of the society.

The minister welcomed the participants and asked that youth was great reservoir of creativity, energy and initiative. They learn, re-act quickly and adapt readily, she said.

She said that today there are more than one billion youth in the world between the ages of 15 and 24. In Pakistan alone, there are approximately 40 million youth between the age of 15 to 29 and they constitute one fourth of our total population, she said.