KARACHI, June 30: Pakistan Crescent Youth Organization (PCYO) has urged the government to formulate a national youth policy aimed at resolving all the issues being faced by this vital segment of the society.

Speaking at a news conference held at a local hotel here on Monday, Tariq H. Chaudhry, Naeem Qureshi and Nadeem Shaikh of PCYO regretted that little was being done by the government for no less than 60 million youths in the country. They pointed out that whatever being undertaken for them lacked any planning.

Referring to the existence of a youth wing in a federal ministry, they said that it was just a small wing allocated a negligible budget of Rs5 million. The amount, they said, almost exhausted on disbursing its staff’s salaries. Stressing the need for streamlining the functioning of the relevant department on sound footings, they suggested that there should be a national, as well as provincial, policy on youth affairs and the issues should be sorted out and resolved by departments at district government level through a proper networking and planning.

They observed that many of youth in this country were either part of the unskilled workforce whereas quite a good number of others unemployed. They were of the view that these besides many other factors contributed greatly to the growing trend among youth of resorting to unlawful and anti-social activities.

In order to cope with the situation, they suggested, training centres should be established for youths and measures taken to ensure conversion of the unskilled workforce into a skilled one so that these people could get jobs or indulge in some creative and constructive activities.

An educated, skilled and financially sound youth force, they added, could play a pivotal role in leading the country to the course of development, progress and prosperity.