What are our priorities?

Talking to a youth convention on Wednesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif underscored the government’s multifaceted initiatives aimed at empowering young people. The premier highlighted the importance of critical thinking and creativity in shaping the country’s future trajectory while expressing his unwavering confidence in the potential of our youth to transform Pakistan. This is no doubt a very important issue but the question that must be asked of the PM and all the ruling elite is if they are actually thinking of these things or merely paying lip-service at such ceremonies. The massive youth bulge needs massive opportunities. At the moment, all we see are a lot of youngsters with degrees looking for jobs but not finding them. We see an education system that churns out degrees but does not encourage critical thinking. Young people who ask questions are more at risk of being picked ‘up’ rather than being picked for the right job. And this is not all. Population growth is also a matter of grave concern. Then there is climate change, something that has serious implications for the entire country, its people and its economy. And on top of it all, terrorism has made a comeback, harming the gains made by sacrificing thousands of lives in the war on terror. Extremism is uncontrollable and intolerance is rising by the day but the state has not done much to stand up to it. Hate speech is rampant and despite our National Action Plan (NAP) promising to deal with it, we have not seen much action. So what are our state’s priorities?

Unfortunately, the past few years have shown that the state’s priorities lie in a hybrid system where political parties are pitted against each other in a weird gladiator game, each waiting its turn at the win. The government’s priorities are to ban social media platforms, install firewalls, whitelist VPNs and throttle the internet. It had rather label people digital terrorists than do the hard work of countering fake news and dangerous propaganda. In all of this, where each institution is protecting its own interests, the priorities of the ruling elite stand exposed. When surveys show us that 74 per cent of urban households cannot meet their expenses in their current income, then the priority of the government should be to focus on the economy. But that’s not what we see. It is time for the state to set its priorities right and focus on these ticking time bombs instead of focusing on things that will lead to further chaos.