If there is anything that could possibly save Pakistan from the murky waters it is deeply drowning in, it is the promise of young citizens — and I say this with strong conviction. This is just not any promise — it is the commitment and interest in cause of many young and brave Pakistanis, who are keen on progress, academic development, and intellectual growth in the face of “bad” news every few hours. Consider. Among various recent youth movements across the country, a few are notably interesting.

“Responsible Citizens” comprises a fairly large group of young minds in Lahore, who gather to volunteer and clean trash every Sunday. “Everybody keeps blaming the government, but no one actually does anything,” says volunteer Shoaib Ahmed. The historic 2008 lawyers’ movement is another larger example of active youth participation, which brought hundreds of youth from across Pakistan — marching for one cause. Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan agrees.

At a recently-organised symposium titled “Regional Symposium: Youth in Action for Global Change” organised by the British Council Pakistan in Islamabad, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsen stated, “I have great hope in the people of Pakistan. You have to be firefighters to bring solutions that get people with different mindsets under one umbrella. Your destiny is in your own hands — and you are here for the next 40 or 50 years to fix things.”

In order to address the many issues Pakistani and other youths (in the South Asian region) are currently facing in their pursuit of progress, the symposium brought together experts from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds as representatives of several countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Nepal, USA and the UK to engage in a healthy dialogue on the civic engagement of youth globally. The symposium was part of the British Council’s Active Citizens Programme in Pakistan, and is focusing on the vigorous involvement of youth in a democratic decision-making process within an open society.

Day one of the symposium commenced with Director British Council Mr David Martin addressing the audience with special emphasis on youth’s role as community players and global citizenship. Thereafter, Chairperson National Planning Commission Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq took the stage and spoke about development as an integrated activity, involvement of youth and need for more public forums of interaction. “We build houses, clubs, offices and roads, but we don’t have public libraries, community centres and other spaces for the youth to interact. We know that youth needs mentoring and informal education,” he said.

This was continued by a keynote speech by Executive Director Innovations in Civic Participation USA Ms Susan Stroud who spoke about the immense power and motivation of young people who have left a strong impact on world history, including Martin Luther King, Gandhi who left South Africa in his early 20s and Nelson Mandela — also a young man in his 20s.

Thereafter, the day proceeded with a brief introduction to Young Parliamentarians Forum (YPF) by President Ms Donya Aziz and a drama performance by Kinnaird College for Women students. Facilitated by James Edlestron, the first session: “Making Choices: Transforming Lives” began with discussions of the panelists including President Special Talent Exchange Programme Mr Atif Sheikh, President Association of Youth Organisation Nepal Mr Pradip Pariyar, Deputy Director Hunger Project Bangladesh Ms Nasima Akhter (Bangladesh), and Chief Executive Rotherham Ethnic Minority Alliance UK Ms Taliba Yasseen (UK) presenting their work, views and responses to the global requirement of youth participatory action. The session ended with working groups presenting their recommendations on making wise choices of transforming others’ lives. Audience participants recommended community work, interpersonal skills, acceptance of diversity and capacity-building among other notions as their ideas.

The second session titled “Making Choices: Towards Radicalisation” generated intense response from the audience, as it was more aligned to the current affairs across the globe, particularly in the South Asian-middle-east region. Mr Maajid Nawaz, the man behind the Khudi movement in Pakistan began with a keynote speech which I found to be most riveting, inspiring and challenging for the audience. Focusing on how communities across the world are becoming polarized with extremist ideologies, and there is an urgent need to address it. “There needs to be an organised initiative for democratic values. We need to demonstrate to the world that Islam cannot be hijacked and is perfectly compatible with a globalized world. One of our failures is that we have not been working together,” he explained.

Day two of the symposium primarily focused on recommendation-work from the participants, but also invited a number of people to speak about youth and the need for civic engagement. CEO Citizenship Foundation UK Andy Thomson inaugurated the session titled “Global Citizenship” and essentially defined what it is to be a young global citizen in this day and age. A global citizen is not quite someone who is a citizen from Nepal or Pakistan. So when people talk about global citizens — they ignore the borders we inhabit. There is more that brings us together as a community of human beings than that which divides us by our countries. I’ve been going to different countries and finding people I can identify with, people who are more like me than the man I live next door to,” he said.

Pakistani educationist Dr Barnadette Dean (ex-principal for Kinnaird College) presented a quick roundup of the education system in Pakistan since the country’s initial years, and reasoned why/how we are here today. “Sadly most of our governments have focused on trying to make us loyal patriotic citizens of our countries. Sometimes they tell us we cannot interact with people in our own region. For instance, we are taught that India is our enemy and Afghanistan we have to be strategic with,” she stated while speaking about lack of global initiatives in the region.

“Our education system should also allow you to do social action projects. Colleges and universities need to make the curriculum more intellectually engaging and challenging,” she continued. The day wrapped up with more talks from Google Pakistan representative Mr Badar Khushnood, Young Afghan Activist Ms Maihan Wali, Mr, Abrar-ul Haq and Director GCC Mercy Corps Qatar, USA Ms Sarah Warren.

The Regional Symposium finally wrapped up with thrilled speakers and an enthusiastic young audience, feeling super challenged to address the pertinent issues at the societal level in their countries, with the idea of active youth citizenship being central and above all else.

Anum Pasha is a Lahore-based writer.