More than half of the population of Pakistan is comprised of young people and by the year 2013 it will exceed to one hundred million. “This means that the youth have greater responsibility on their shoulder to explore new opportunities for themselves and be prepared to assume leadership roles and responsibilities.” These views were shared by the participants and the guest speakers at an inter-university debate for Federal Areas on the resolution “Pakistani Youth realize its responsibilities,” arranged by the Centre For Civic Education (CCE) Pakistan.
Teams from Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, F. G. Post Graduate College, Islamabad, International Islamic University Islamabad, Karakurram International University Gilgit, Preston University Islamabad and Quid-e-Azam University Islamabad.
The students who favoured the proposition acclaimed the role of youth in Pakistan in historical perspective and said that youth are aware of their responsibilities. The speakers said that even though, Pakistan is going through a very testing time and crisis, youth has not forgotten its role. The participants alluded towards the threat of terrorism and said that it were youth who did not give up to these threats and let the beacon lit by their resolve and faced the challenge with bravery. The students who opposed the resolution said that had the youth been aware of its responsibilities, our country would have been in a better situation than what we are facing today.
Chief guest Tariq Malik, Deputy Chairman, National Database Registration Authority highlighted the potential of Pakistan as country and said that only thing we need is to find the right direction and a rational approach to address the challenges. He said that the real dilemma is that the majority of our youth has declared politics as a “forbidden pursuit.” He said no constructive change could be realized if our youth is not ready to play an active role in politics and tries to change current state of affairs instead of cursing the politics and doing nothing in practical.
Zafarullah Khan, Executive Director of the CCE while commending the spirit of healthy debate argued the participation epitomizes the high spirit and potential of Pakistani youth. He added that we need to appreciate the diversity and pluralism to follow the vision of Quaid-e-Azam about Pakistan as a modern democratic state where the rights of every citizen are protected without any discrimination of caste, creed and religion.
The panel of judges comprised of best debators of yesteryears, Shiraz Manzoor Haider, ShoukaT Paracha and Fouzia Shaheen. Tanzila Mazhar chaired the debate. They also said that the youth should ponder upon the ideals of democracy, tolerance and multiculturalism and try to think globally instead of a narrow thought pattern.
According to the results Sadaf Irfan Ababsi of Preston University won the first prize while Faiza Idrees of Quid-e-Azam University and Mohammad Asad Rafiq of International Islamic university won second and third prizes respectively. Quid-e-Azam University was judged as the best team.
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