Where does Pakistan stand on the rights of young people?
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Pakistan has a population with an ever-growing youth surge. According to a UN 2017 report, 63% of the population are young persons between 15 to 33 years of age. Yet, there is no clarity as to where we stand on the rights of, and opportunities for, children and young people.
The phenomenon of a large youth population is not unique to Pakistan. Most developing countries are experiencing it. Yet, we in Pakistan need to ask if our policy makers understand the ratio of youth in proportion to the resources that exist; whether there is an effective action plan or policy on higher education and skills training; what exists in terms of social and gender inclusion; policy on how to engage youth in and through the political process; on child labour and how well young people will eventually do in the labour market. Questions of adolescent fertility also need to be addressed both in terms of controlling population growth and increasing economic growth.
In terms of institutions, we have the recently established Commission on the Rights of the Child. The Commission was envisioned by the PPP, with legislation having passed in 2017 and established in 2020. Unfortunately, a private member bill by MNA Nusrat Abbasi (PTI) in 2021 amended the law to severely curtail the power of the Commission, which now functions as a sub-department of its parent ministry and functions like most women’s commissions in the country – underfunded, understaffed and struggling with autonomy under an overbearing parent department, which fails to fully comprehend the role of a watchdog body.
Commissions’ functions are to strengthen systems and structures to further benefit young people and women. Constant conflict exists between the implementing government body and commissions - where the parent departments have accused commissions of either not working or usurping the functions of the parent departments. In my professional interaction with these commissions, none of these accusations hold any evidentiary value.
With regard to programmes, the previous PTI government introduced the Kamiyab Jawan programme, which focuses on education, employment and engagement. Its silence on girls and young women, and the barriers that restrict them from pursuing an education and employment opportunities, is unfortunate. On what it does promise, it has failed, so far, to create any meaningful impact.
PTI has a youth following but it is not because there was an active understanding within the party to politicalize young people. It was Imran Khan’s cricketer status that appealed to young people and had extraordinarily little to do with his political messaging.
Benazir Jatoi
What commissions and government programmes have failed on is engagement with youth on their needs and demands. There has also been an aversion to look at youth from the perspective of rights – what rights they have under the constitution or international conventions ratified by Pakistan and how this can be addressed. Nor is there a desire to want to address youth as a group that requires engagement beyond development related needs. Seeing them as potential voters and participants in the political process, for example has never been part of any political party’s agenda nor government strategy. PTI has a youth following but it is not because there was an active understanding within the party to politicalize young people. It was Imran Khan’s cricketer status that appealed to young people when Khan first entered politics and had extraordinarily little to do with his political messaging. Since then, PTI has at least attempted to address young voters. Other political parties have next to no effective or visible strategy on appealing to this young voter bank.
Latin American countries, for example, have recognised that an emphasis on youth population is important and youth focused policy and legislation are more visible in many countries in the region. There is also an emphasis on youth led bodies, youth councils and civil society groups. This seems to suggest that youth in Latin America are being encouraged to organise and be political, demand rights, actively engage in structural reform and seek a future that benefits them. This is something Pakistan has not seen. In fact, powerful institutions in Pakistan would, and have silenced, any youth activism, including student unions and youth associations that are political. The only youth groups that are allowed to openly organize and consistently remain prominent, are religious groups - despite the fact that their demands and values remain inconsistent with constitutional guarantees and 21st century global values. Examples of Western right wing religious groups, particularly in the US, show that these groups do not remain in the periphery for long, and very quickly dominate mainstream politics and the cultural debate.
Actively discouraging progressive, rights-focused and political movements of young people and student unions has led to a youth population that has limited understanding of their political rights, are unable to comprehend the importance of demanding and safeguarding these rights and are lost to the idea that peaceful and inclusive societies are built through political struggle ideally in a functioning democracy. The political and economic future of this country looks bleak if this status quo of an apolitical, disengaged, disempowered and marginalized youth remains. Pakistan’s future generations deserve better.
— Benazir Jatoi is a barrister, working in Islamabad, whose work focuses on women and minority rights. She is a regular contributor to the op-ed pages in various Pakistani newspapers.
Twitter: @BenazirJatoi
