CARETAKER Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar has expressed resolve of the government to make welfare of the youth a priority and gave direction that the disbursement of loans under Prime Minister’s Youth Programme should be done with utmost care and responsibility. He also wanted formulation of a special strategy to achieve the desired results of the skill development schemes.
The meeting that the Prime Minister chaired to review the progress of the scheme was informed that 550,000 people had been trained under the PM Skill Development Programme since 2013 while some 56,000 more people would be trained mostly in high-tech skills in the next phase. The participants were told that schemes worth Rs80 billion have been earmarked in the PM Youth Development Package 2023-24. These schemes include Education Endowment Fund, Women Empowerment, Business and Agriculture Loan, Tube-Well Solarization, Laptops Scheme, Sports Endowment Fund, Green Revolution, Digital Hub One Window. No doubt, the successive governments claimed to make welfare of the youth a priority because of obvious reasons and cumulatively easy loans worth over hundred billion rupees have been provided to youth since 2013 under the PM Youth Business and Agriculture Loan Scheme but neither the amount was sufficient nor it has so far produced the desired results. It is mockery of planning and decision-making that the youth, who are getting frustrated due to lack of employment opportunities and on whose shoulders rests the future of the country, were provided paltry Rs 100 billion (as loans and skills development) in the last ten year (at an average Rs 10 billion a year) as against hefty allocations of Rs 364 billion for Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the current financial year. Trillions of rupees have been spent on BISP ever since its launching despite the fact that it contributed nothing significantly to support the poor family as the cash grant they receive is not enough even to meet their flour requirements. It is a sorry state of affairs that the job opportunities, instead of increasing with the passage of time, are decreasing due to lack of focus on industrialization and the ever-increasing cost of doing business. Luckily, there is growing demand for skilled and high tech jobs in many of the foreign job markets, especially the Gulf region but despite tall claims we have so far accomplished no credible programme for skills development due to lack of monitoring and oversight. This aspect needs to be given special attention as export of manpower has the potential to address the woes of not only youth but also the country.
