Press Release
It is crucial to provide the youth of Pakistan a platform to speak their thoughts and opinions and involve them in the decision-making process as much as possible. The social fabric of any developing country is dependent upon its youth, especially Pakistan.
These were the remarks made by Dr. Shahzad Waseem, Leader of the House for the Senate of Pakistan, while speaking to the selected Youth Voices in the Democratic Process (YDP) alumni at a three day virtual National Caucus, May 18-20, 2021, organized by the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS). The virtual sessions took place on Zoom, with Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on the first day, Dr. Shahzad Waseem from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on the second and Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, President Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) Federal Capital, on the third day.
The aim of the National Caucus was to provide the political parties a list of recommendations by the youth of Pakistan, presented by selected YDP alumni, which may help them design a more inclusive, holistic, and gender-focused manifesto for the upcoming election cycle. These recommendations were drafted by CRSS in a policy paper after holding 20 digital youth caucus meetings across the length and breadth of Pakistan with over 450 youth, which revealed nine thematic areas youth were concerned about.
Dr. Shahzad appreciated CRSS’ efforts on creating a very comprehensive policy paper which reflected youth thoughts and suggestions as it reinforces the fact that our youth’s thinking process is unparalleled. He responded to several points raised in the recommendations and updated the youth on the current work being done on some of the aspects.
Senator Mustafa agreed with the fact that the promises made in the youth section of all manifestos regardless of which political party it belongs to lacks implementation. He stated that an unfortunate trend in our politics is that when political parties release their manifestos and the election campaigns are taking place, there is hardly any conversation that revolves around the manifesto. There are certain points that parties do pick up from their manifestos to use as slogans during their campaigns, but they are never looked at in detail, and that is why such programs, as being done by CRSS, are of much importance.
Lastly, after listening to the presentations, Dr. Tariq appreciated the fact that our youth is very well aware of the diseases in our system. He stated that youth is the major stakeholder of Pakistan and depending on how Pakistan deals with the youth, it can either be the biggest strength or biggest weakness of the nation.
Reinsuring the youth present in the event, all three promised to work towards including the youth in the parliament, and raising their concerns in the appropriate for where applicable.
