KARACHI: “It is an oft repeated cliché that the youth bulge in Pakistan’s population today stands at 65 per cent. This makes them the largest stakeholders in the country’s present and future. This also places an enormous responsibility on them,” said Nargis Rahman at the Inter-University Elocution Competition on ‘How can we achieve the Pakistan we want’ organised by Pakistan Women’s Foundation for Peace at a hotel here on Tuesday.

Students from some eight institutions took part in the competition. Ms Rahman said initially after much scrutiny they had selected and invited 11 universities to send their students to take part in the elocution competition, but only eight agreed while the others discarded the invitation saying that their students were not interested in that kind of thing.

The students confidently shared their views with the audience. Ms Mariam of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University, Lyari, spoke on false hope given by politicians, Nooruddin Kakar of Hamdard University highlighted the many problems faced by the nation, Habib A. Ferozi of Karachi University motivated the audience to steal their rights if not being given those readily, Hiba Latifi of NED University spoke on the importance of women’s empowerment, Insha Moin of St Joseph’s Convent highlighted the law and order situation, Kazim Ali of Szabist demanded equal rights for all, Zehra Akbar Shahnawaz of Ziauddin University spoke on the importance of taking up social causes and Hania Saeed of Institute of Business Administration spoke on gender discrimination.

“Whatever said here mostly included how things are. But the theme was about how we want to see Pakistan and how that can be achieved, which wasn’t spoken on much here,” said Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui, the chief guest on the occasion.

“Everyone here spoke on how we have de-tracked. Yes, we have de-tracked as a nation, so first talk of how to re-track. Can it be achieved easily? To reconstruct you need to know where the problems lie. Re-tracking would also require a strategy.”

Justice Haziqul Khairi, who presided over the contest, said that most would want Pakistan like what Jinnah envisioned but there could be some misconceptions about that, too. “The Quaid-i-Azam moved ahead taking the two-nation theory. But this theory was not about Muslims and non-Muslims. It was not based on religion, it was about politics and economics. This was also why the Muslim League came about in 1906. This was why the resolution was passed in 1940. So this was how the Pakistan Movement began and how Pakistan came about,” he said.

“In his speech of August 11, the Quaid said that after Muslims and Hindus were one nation in Pakistan and the state had nothing to do with religion but today this religious difference has almost destroyed this country. There are the Taliban introducing their own type of Islam. This is not the Pakistan the Quaid and Allama Iqbal wanted. Extremism must be done away with.” Educationalist Abbas Hussain announced the winners of the competition. The first prize was picked up by Habib A. Ferozi of Karachi University, the second by Insha Moin of St Joseph’s Convent and the third by Hiba Latifi of NED University.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014