ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Monday stressed the need of harnessing the talent of youth for the development of the country.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day international conference on “Youth Wings among Political Parties: A Comparative Analysis of Germany and Pakistan”.

The conference is being organised by the Department of Sociology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) Pakistan.

The federal minister urged the social scientists and academia for establishing a national task force to assess, how war against terror is shaping the perception and outlook of our youth.

The QAU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Javed Ashraf said for achieving the goal of national development “we need to equip our youth with education, skills and training. We have an enormous amount of talent in the country and now it is our job to give them a favourable environment,” he added.

Earlier, Prof. Dr. Aliya H. Khan, dean, faculty of Social Sciences, QAU, in her address of welcome defined the objectives of the conference.

She emphasized using the energy and potential of youth in a positive way. She said that youth played a very important role in strengthening democratic process.

The ambassador of Federal Republic of Germany Dr. Cyrill Nunn analysed the youth of Pakistan and Germany and drew a comparison between them.

The German ambassador said the youth was a vital component of the society and “our destinies are linked together”.

He also appreciated the dynamic role of the youth in the development of Pakistan.

Dr Mohammad Zaman, Head of the Department of Sociology (QAU), gave the rationale behind the conference and stressed the need to create linkages between academia and political parties.

Dr. Almut Besold, Country Representative FNF, highlighted the importance of youth wings in different political parties and their increased engagement in political process.

She also provided some statistics about youth involvement in different political parties in Germany and developing countries like Pakistan.

Dr. Peter Rieker from Zurich University, Switzerland, Mr. Boris Wilke from the Bielefeld University, Germany, Prof. Dr. Mathias Albert and Ms. Haleema Saad from the British Council also addressed the conference.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2015

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