Exploring careers

May 4 – Thursday – turned into a most memorable day in my life as one of my big dreams came true in the form of Pakistan’s largest job fair held at the Karachi Expo Centre with the aim to connect job seekers with potential employers across the country. I am highly grateful to Chairman HEC Dr Mukhtar and Governor State Bank Jameel Ahmed, who have whole-heartedly supported the Pakistan Hindu Council for this noble cause.

Undoubtedly, the majority of the talented youth of Pakistan are interested in trying their luck abroad. However, during my conversations with senior officials of various government and business institutions, they always looked for human resources to achieve their organizational goals. That is why every Sunday national newspapers are full of all kinds of job advertisements. Similarly, various recruitment websites and job portals are advertising various vacancies with good salaries in accordance with the current job market.

When anyone tells me that there are no jobs in Pakistan, it always makes me think a lot. I did a lot of research on this, discussed the issue with recruitment experts of various institutions, and exchanged views with the HEC and various universities' senior officials. I came to the conclusion that the real issue is the right person at the right place for the right job. Many talented young people holding degrees in their hands are approaching institutions where they are not needed while many institutions are not getting suitable candidates with the required qualifications and expertise. Such a critical situation inevitably has a negative impact not only on our national economy but also results in severe problems in failing desired outcomes.

Ongoing rampant inflation and unemployment are also causing mental stress, especially among the educated youth. Currently, several economic activities have been severely affected due to unfavourable conditions at the national level. The financial crisis has a direct impact on jobs as well, due to which university students are facing various concerns including uncertainty about their future.

The Pakistan Hindu Council decided to organize a grand event in the form of the Job Fair and Education Expo 2023 in Karachi, the business hub of Pakistan, so that national and international institutions can apprise university students and unemployed people about vacancies they have at the moment.

When I finalized the date to organize the job fair in the last days of March this year, we had only one month in front of us, in which office hours timings during Ramazan, Eidul Fitr and 1st May holidays were major challenges. However, due to tireless work day and night, we achieved our target in a short period of time to get confirmations from more than 500 recruitment / HR professionals belonging to 120 national and international organizations. On the occasion, up to 12,000 students of public and private universities located in Karachi, Hyderabad and different regions of the country also joined the event actively to explore different career opportunities. Even students studying in remote areas of the country requested if they could participate online. It is a matter of pride that national media in the news bulletins and reports termed the PHC job fair as one of the largest mega events of the country.

In my view, the youth of our country is our most important and valuable asset. It is our national duty to provide full guidance to our youth and support them to stand on their own feet so that they can contribute to our country’s economy, national development and prosperity in the best possible manner.

The writer is a member of the National Assembly and patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hindu Council.

He tweets @RVankwani