KARACHI: The third and concluding day of the International Conference on ‘Managing Megacities-2016’ held in the HEJ auditorium on the Karachi University campus on Thursday focused on the youth of Pakistan, especially of Karachi. It was organised by the KU department of public administration and Schar School of Public Policy and Government, George Mason University, United States.

Dr Moiz Khan of the KU’s department of general history while presenting his paper on the country’s education system highlighted its several drawbacks. He said Pakistan had several education systems, which differed from one another very much, and they were creating superiority and inferiority complexes in our youth. He called for having a uniform education system that should have all the positive aspects of the prevailing education systems in the country.

Ammad Zafar, an MPhil scholar from the KU department of public administration, spoke about youth emigration. He said that in the last six years, more than 3.7 million people had migrated from Pakistan to seek employment, mostly in the Middle East. “About one million people migrated from Pakistan in 2015. Now 48.7pc of youth from Karachi alone want to leave Pakistan for various reasons, including unemployment, insecurity, economic problems, lack of social support and career opportunities. This high rate of outward migration from Pakistan is creating brain drain conditions, especially in the health and education sectors, where there is a shortage of skilled workforce,” he said.

“About 4pc of Pakistan’s population, or some seven million people, currently live abroad. About 48pc of Pakistani emigrants live in the Middle East, 28pc live in Europe, 19pc in the United States and 5pc live elsewhere. According to a Gallup survey, two-thirds of the population of Pakistan wishes to leave,” he said.

Salman Khatani, another MPhil scholar from the same department, discussed the socio-economic growth in Karachi. He said that in 2015, Pakistan’s population was 191.71 million. Of this 30pc was 15-29 years of age. “With an estimated population of over 22 million, Karachi is ranked as the seventh largest megacity in the world and its youth population with a median age of 21 years now exceeds seven million,” he said.

“The newly-emerging socio-economic patterns resulting from the rapid growth of Karachi creates an environment within which an analysis of the entrepreneurial approach and perspective of youth is very important, particularly regarding issue areas such as reducing unemployment, improving economic development and job creation to achieve self-financial sustainability,” he added. According to his survey, 90pc of the youth of Karachi do not see an opportunity for them in Karachi which helps explain why so many of them are ready to welcome opportunities in other countries and want to leave Karachi.

Shumaila Burney, a visiting faculty member of the KU department of public administration, presented a paper related to the performance of the government hospitals of Karachi. She lamented that the public of Karachi, 75pc of which comprised lower-middle and middle classes, was deprived of adequate healthcare facilities at the government hospitals. “Private hospitals despite their high fees lead the health care sector of the city which is quite unaffordable for the vast majority of the here,” she said.

The concluding day of the conference was also attended by US consul general Grace W. Shelton, who said Karachi and New York faced same sort of issues in general and “together we can solve issues”.

On the occasion, chairman of the KU department of public administration Prof Dr Shabib-ul-Hasan announced the launch of the official research journal of their department entitled Global Journal for Management and Administrative Sciences.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2016