KARACHI: “Youth is our strength, our power. But the youth of this country has been sidelined,” said senior politician Mehtab Akbar Rashdi while speaking at a dialogue on improving participation of youth in electoral processes.

Titled ‘Missing Young Voters of Pakistan’, the event was organised by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) at a local hotel on Thursday.

“Pakistan’s youth don’t even realise their own power and potential in [shaping] the future of this country,” she said, adding that it’s mostly because political parties here appeared not serious about moving ahead side-by-side the youth.

“Do the political parties here even care about our youth? Are there any new leaders here? Out here the parties only move ahead with family members. It is always the same families and the same faces that you see in this country’s politics. What is democracy when the parties themselves have uncontested leaders?” Ms Rashdi put forth some pertinent questions.

Statistics show only 31pc of young people went to the polls in 2018 elections, says PILDAT president

MPA Arsalan Taj Hussain of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) also said that the youth in Pakistan were being put down by being told that they were ill-informed to be considered for politics. “Education institutions here have forms for parents to sign to make sure that their children don’t engage in politics before joining any educational institution,” he said, while agreeing that politics in Pakistan only seems to be the business of certain families. “The youth here feels alienated from politics; that’s why they feel discouraged. But they should take this as a challenge … a challenge to break the status quo … the status quo, which you can break through their votes,” he stressed.

Youth affairs department’s assistant director Syed Habib Ullah, spoke about the 2018 youth policy and youth empowerment programmes. He said that government wanted to start monthly programmes engaging 50 to 100 youths at a time. “For this we also want to invite people to help in awareness regarding importance of votes,” he said.

Sharing his viewpoint, MPA Mufti Mohammed Qasim Fakhri of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) said that hope gives rise to positivity. “The youth here feels discouraged seeing rigging a common practice in elections. They see elections as just a joke or a game. So they feel helpless,” he opined.

“The TLP, on the other hand, is a new party that gives tickets to youths to contest in elections. We provide hope to youths by supporting them. Our own leader, Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi, is 27 years old. In Pakistan, 60 per cent of the population comprises youths. If they feel hopeless, then you have more than half of Pakistan hopeless,” he added.

Sindh Minister for Universities and Boards Mohammed Ismail Rahu said that it was wrong to discourage youth from politics at their educational institutions. “They are told that joining politics is counter-productive. But it is a fact that student unions lay the foundation for leadership roles for those youths who don’t have any political background,” he said.

Regional Election Commissioner, Karachi, Nazar Abbas said that awareness of politics was needed in every democratic system. “If our youths don’t use their vote, then they automatically cut themselves out from raising their voice for their rights. They need to understand this,” he said.

In her presentation, director media coordination, outreach wing of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Qurat-ul-Ain Fatima shared how to catch them young at the school level to motivate them about election process by holding interactive sessions, by distributing brochures with frequently asked questions answered in them. She also said that the ECP had a social media presence with motivational messages to engage youth also with having various programmes and competitions for them as the youth needs empowerment and training.

Earlier, PILDAT president Ahmed Bilal Mehboob reminded the audience that general elections were not far and it was quite concerning that young people in Pakistan usually did not turn up to vote. “They are not interested in the democratic or voting processes. Then what else is this energetic group really interested in?” He wondered.

He also shared studies from the 2018 elections that point towards a 45 per cent overall voter turnout in Pakistan in which the youth percentage is 31 per cent, showing a big gap. In comparison, India had 66 per cent overall turnout in their 2019 elections and there the youth turnout was even higher than that -- 69 per cent. “Why are our youth underrepresented in our political parties? It will make them lose interest and go towards counter-productive activities,” he apprehended.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2022