Youth, the greatest cohort of Pakistan, should be directly involved in dialogue as the key stakeholders, innovators, future policy-makers and leaders of this nation. The recent shooting of Malala Yusufzai has shown what Pakistani youth really feels and how it thinks on issues. The people have spoken in the huge rallies, in Karachi and elsewhere. Earlier, this never happened because people were scared of being shot, kidnapped, and having bombs thrown at them. This is the first time that there has been such a huge public outpouring.
Pakistan is one of those countries across the globe where size of youth is enormously big. Unfortunately, there has been little effort on the part of government to reach out to the youth and channelize their talent, passion of volunteerism and dedication for a better society to live in and prosper. In recent years, we have seen a number of political parties wooing youth for party cadre which provided youth an opportunity to organize and voice out their concerns on political fronts. However, a need for youth’s formal engagement in socio-political and economic decision-making and development is an acknowledged fact if we really want to see change in the lives of poor people of Pakistan. The most interesting part is the ingenuity of ideas and observations, the youth came up with. From the analysis of the socio-political context, youth in Pakistan is more optimistic and confident of the change required to ensure social progress and prosperity.
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND CAMPAIGNS LED BY THE YOUTH
Activista
Action Aid Pakistan launched an innovative program which unites youth from across the globe, In this regard, a youth network from Karachi LRP (Local Rights Program) was selected for initiating a debate on social issues and social media skills to report and analyze the interconnectivity of multiple social problems with a purpose to make state institutions more responsive and accountable to