During a recent class discussion at a public-sector university students were asked to identify the country’s strengths and weaknesses. Needless to say the status of being a nuclear power topped the list of strengths, and corruption left everything behind in the other list in most cases. But some other — and, may one say, more interesting — observations were made. For instance, a young population was cited by almost all the respondents as a source of relative satisfaction in terms of putting an extra layer of brightness on Pakistan’s future.

With a young population, countries are potentially — but not necessarily — able to convert the human dividend into progress at various tiers of national activity. Pakistan, indeed, is a young country with a median age of 22.8 years. The global average is 29.4 years. Just imagine the kind of energy such a youthful population must have. The adrenalin must be pumping through the veins round the clock in the body and soul of such a young nation. Right? But let’s see it with a bit more data which might put the whole fandango in some context — brighter or otherwise.

The rate of urbanisation, for instance, is also on the rise which is a characteristic that is growth-friendly in nature. On the global scale, Pakistan is ranked 163rd on the scale of urbanisation, but in actual terms it is 62nd because of multiple nations sharing various positions. More than half of the country’s urban population is based in a cluster of eight cities: Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Islamabad and Quetta.

The overall urban mass is 36.2 per cent of the national population, which makes Pakistan the most urbanised country in the whole of South Asia; the closest being Bhutan with 35.6pc, followed by India — 31.3pc — and Bangladesh — 28.4pc.

So, put together, the two pieces of data define Pakistan as a nation of young, urban people. Other than being ‘energetic’, any nation with such a reasonable urban mass would also have some other characteristics. For instance, ‘rational’. How about ‘hard-working’? And, of course, that hackneyed word ‘enlightened’?

When a university-level class says, “Islam is our national strength”, it is hard for the teacher to even dare to point out that the way we have practised the religion, it is, in fact, a weakness; not a strength. At the very least, it is today one of the major markers of severe polarisation in the country standing in the way of nation-building.

With all other data on the economic scale — and even otherwise — painting a gloomy picture, it is suggestive of a nation in crisis. In our specific context, it means the human dividend is practically of no use to us. The youth factor is unable to save us on its own.

As for the urbanisation part, it is more a sign of failure to manage the rural landscape that is pushing people to urban centres where all it is doing is causing polarisation along almost all possible lines. The young-urban combination, as such, is hardly working to our advantage.

Any idea why? Lack of education. Quality of education. What else? Everyone across the country knows it except of course those who happen to be calling the shot at any given time. The politicians know it. The generals know it. But when they — whoever they may be — start roaming the corridors of power, they suddenly cease to understand that without education one can make nothing of whatever positives we have.

In the last decade or so we have all heard so much about ‘revolutionary’ changes in the name of education — from curriculum changes to new examination patterns to number of doctorates and God knows what — but the actual worth of it all can be seen in proper context with the fact that Pakistan is languishing at the bottom of the Education For All (EFA) Development Index.

Not much different is the pace that has marked Pakistan’s compliance with the Millennium Development Goals — a pace that makes the proverbial snail appear to be moving like a super sprinter; like Usain Bolt. One reason is the low allocation to education as a percentage of the GNP in terms of public expenditure. The second is the misuse — or rather the ill-use — of the allocated funds.

The net result can be seen by Unesco’s fact sheet on Pakistan for the year 2012 according to which, the country has the world’s second highest number of children out of school. Every 12th child out of school in the entire world is a Pakistani. Even the adult illiteracy is the third largest globally. The country currently ranks 113 out of 120 in the Education Development Index. Worst still, the future projections are even more negative.

Without education harnessing the talent, energy and potential of the youth, this human capital is nothing but a dead investment. On the global list of median age, there is no dearth of countries that have a population even younger than that of Pakistan. A massive majority of them happen to be African.

If youth on its own could do much, Niger should have been the current superpower of the world for the median age of its population is merely 15 years. And, for good measure, it would have faced tough competition coming from Uganda and Mali which have corresponding figures of 15.2 and 16 years. But they are economic and political non-entities. Is there a lesson to be learnt here?

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