KHAIRPUR, Dec 28: Pakistan People’s Party MNA Nafisa Shah on Friday highlighted the need for providing the youth with a platform for honing their leadership skills and grooming them to face and analyse important and difficult matters.

She was speaking as a chief guest at a day-long conference ‘Step Towards Change’ organised by a local NGO at the Sachal Auditorium, Khairpur.

Ms Shah advised the youth to use networking for optimum advantage since it was a very useful tool.

The purpose of the conference was to engage the youth and provide an interactive platform for youth groups and organisations to meet government officials, intellectuals and educationists.

Over 150 youths participated in the conference from various organisations including the Khairpur Youth Organisation, Voice of New Generation, Young Students Welfare Organisation, Sachal Hamdard Foundation, Sindh chapter of Right to Play Pakistan and student bodies of various educational institutions.

The keynote speaker, the provincial secretary of youth affairs, Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, urged the youth to realise their true potential for helping them grow productively.

He told the youth that wasting time and energy was a great injustice to themselves and also to their country. He advised them to diversify their thinking because this would lead them to success.

He said that the Sindh government would collaborate with Unicef and Right To Play Pakistan, the organisers of the workshop, to supplement its efforts regarding youth affairs in the country.

His address was followed by an interactive panel discussion on social development youth entrepreneurship and a performance by the Indus Theatre Group.

In her speech, the programme coordinator, Ratan Salem, said that today’s youth had the ability to drive their communities forward and they should be provided with the appropriate platform build their leadership skills.