PESHAWAR: The politicians belonging to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) had to face tough questions from the youth at a lively dialogue here Wednesday.The "Youth Dialogue on Democratic and Peaceful Governance and Sustainable Development" was organized by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development (PILDAT) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pakistan. Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, Speaker of KP Assembly, conducted the proceedings for some time before leaving and passing on the task to Aasia Khattak, MPA.Among the politicians invited to the dialogue, PPP's Nighat Orakzai and Sher Azam Wazir failed to turn up. However, other lawmakers made up for their absence by taking part in the dialogue. They included senior minister Mohammad Atif Khan, who is minister of youth affairs, tourism, culture and sports, provincial assembly's Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan, Finance Minister Taimur Salim Jhagra, Kamran Bangash who is adviser to the chief minister, and MPAs Sumera Shams and Ayesha Bano. All of them belong to the PTI.The opposition lawmakers at the dialogue were ANP's Samar Haroon Bilour and Salahuddin Momand, MMA's Humaira Bibi and PML-N's Jamshed Khan Mohmand. The representatives of the youth who posed questions to the lawmakers included Ayaz Haider Bangash, Furqan Yousafzai, Roeel Azmat Khan, Luqman Hakeem, Mohammad Ilyas, Abdul Wahid Qureshi, Siraj Mohammad and Ms Elum Gul and Ms Yusra Hussain.The audience, which comprised overwhelmingly young people, also asked questions. Some of the queries were provocative, including one which questioned the powers of the elected government and the lawmakers to do anything positive and meaningful.Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, President of PILDAT, in his welcome address noted that only 24 percent youth trusted the politicians. He highlighted the 3Es - quality Education, gainful Employment and meaningful Engagement - summarized by the UNDP Youth Report that will mark the difference between a youth boom or bust. "To address the third E, that is Engagement, PILDAT and UNDP have joined hands to organize this platform," he added.The dialogue was aimed at prioritizing the future of the young people KP amidst the growing extremism in educational institutions, lack of employment opportunities and the declining state of education across the province.Through their questions and comments, the youth speakers highlighted the issues of unemployment and under-employment, allocation of resources for construction of schools, general lack of focus on various aspects of quality education, selection and appointment of eligible teachers in educational institutions on merit, provision of counseling facilities in schools to increase awareness against gender-based violence and harassment, provision of aid for betterment of co-curricular activities for students, need for building consensus to tackle radicalisation of youth, tackling drug abuse in the province, granting rights to transgenders and religious minorities, uniformity in the school curriculums, coping with the challenge of terrorism in KP and speedy integration of the youth of erstwhile Fata.The lawmakers generally agreed with the issues highlighted by the youth and reiterated that they would work together in the province to resolve issues concerning the youths. Most of the questions were directed at senior minister Atif Khan, who during the PTI's previous stint in office had served as education minister.Samar Haroon Bilour, widow of Haroon Bashir Bilour who lost his life in a suicide bombing while campaigning for the general election in Peshawar on July 10, highlighted pertinent issues and questioned the PTI's performance while replying to questions posed by the youth representatives.
from The News International - National https://ift.tt/2BDHFTF
0 comments:
Post a Comment