Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs Shaza Fatima Khawaja has said that the development of any nation or society depends on young generation.
Addressing an inaugural ceremony of Talent Hunt Youth Sports League (National Wrestling and Weightlifting) under Prime Minister’s Youth Programme arranged under the aegis of Higher Education Commission (HEC) at the sports complex of University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS).
Shaza Fatima Khawaja said that 68 percent population of our society was comprised of young people, in which 15 crore youth were under the age of 30 years and 10 crore children are under the age of 15 years in Pakistan.
She emphasized that the young people were not only our future but our present as well and they had to take this country forward. When Pakistan was formed, it also started with the students’ movement and youth led the Pakistan Movement and eventually got an independent country, she remarked.
“We want our young generation to participate in positive activities under these programmes”, she added.
She said that it should be our mission to defeat all the hatreds that were spread on our society on political, racial and linguistic basis.
Shaza Khawaja warned the young generation from wrong message of hatred, wherever anyone get the message of hatred and chaos, they should understand that wrong message and the person. She said that our country at this threshold could not afford these hatreds as we had to move forward as a nation.
She said that in 2011, when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was the chief minister of Punjab, he started the Chief Minister Youth Programme which included forward looking programmes like laptops for students, e-employment, e-learning and e-governance. She informed that Punjab Education Endowment Fund was the Asia’s largest endowment fund which was created by Shahbaz Sharif for the promotion of education. She said when Mian Nawaz Sharif came into power, the first project he launched was Prime Minister’s Youth Programme under which laptops, scholarships, Qarz-e-Hasana and paid internships were given you young generation.
Millions of children and youth had been given the enabling environment and facilities to thrive and move forward she said.
“Today, we have to carry this mission forward and we are trying to create an enabling environment that can economically, socially and culturally take our children and especially girls, who are 50 percent of our population, to move forward”, she said.
“Ever since I took over the charge of youth affairs, we have ensured women participation in every sport. Now women will have equal participation in all sports”, she said.
She congratulated and thanked all the youth, participating teams, staff members and management for organizing this excellent programme.
