LAHORE: Minister for Youth and Sports Taimoor Khan says youth will be given grants, not loans under “Punjab Youth Entrepreneurship Programme” in order to earn a respectable livelihood. The project is being launched next month.

Speaking at a policy dialogue on “Empowering Youth for Employment and Entrepreneurship” jointly organised by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and Indus Consortium under UKAID-funded project on Tuesday, he said 64pc of Pakistan’s population consisted of youth, which is a positive omen for future prosperity of the country.

“It is, however, also a challenge for the government to fulfil youth’s aspirations and we cannot provide government jobs to all youth. Therefore, we are focusing on imparting skill development and promoting entrepreneurship,” he said.

The minister said a directorate would be established to launch Punjab Youth Entrepreneurship Programme.

Representatives of the youth presented their demands to the provincial minister. They demanded the government thoroughly review the youth policy and address the issues and challenges being faced by uneducated and rural youth as the current [policy] only focussed educated and urban youth while issues of transgender persons, the differently-abled and religious minorities should be included in the policy.

Hashoo Foundation country director Ayesha Khan said youth’s access to quality education was a challenge and it should be addressed by the government. She said private and corporate sectors could resolve the issues of youth’s employability and the government should provide the right kind of environment to them to flourish.

VSO coordinator Shahid Khan said a multi-sectoral approach towards the growing employability concerns in Pakistan is the need of the hour.

“VSO, therefore, provides a platform where the government, corporate giants, CSOs and the media can join hands and come up with their valuable inputs to address the issue. This policy dialogue will prove to be a stepping stone in providing direction to the largest demographic segment of our society,” Mr Khan said.

Pakistan’s first transgender news anchorperson Mavia Malik highlighted the plight of her community in social upward mobility.

She and other representatives of transgender youth demanded the government increase job quota for the community.

PTI MPA Saadia Sohail Rana termed lack of research centres in universities a major reason for country’s scientific and technological backwardness. PML-N MPA Bushra Butt stressed the need for continuing with the internship programme initiated and expanded by the previous government.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2019