Session on role of youth in national development

PESHAWAR: Speakers at a session here on Wednesday urged the students to gird themselves for the challenges of the present-day.

Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) Director General Israrul Haq and senior journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai spoke at the session on the “Role of Youth in National Development” held at the IMSciences.

Israrul Haq explained what development stood for and highlighted four primary conditions needed for a country to be called developed.

Elaborating the conditions, he said that when basic sustenance was no more an issue and there was freedom of choice and freedom from servitude.

He said that a country should be respected internationally to fall in the category of developed nations.

Israrul Haq explained the progress and complications experienced in the massive Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. He said PDA’s role has been extended to Nowshera and Charsadda as well after having focused earlier on Peshawar.

He also shed light on the development projects undertaken by the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments in the country.

He listed the CPEC as a major initiative of the federal government and the Swat Expressway and the construction of 356 mini-hydel dams among the projects undertaken by the provincial government.

Israrul Haq stressed the need for an increased role of youth in national development of Pakistan.

Rahimullah Yusufzai said that nation building aimed at developing the minds of the people in pursuit of a national identity and strengthening the social fabric of the society.

He said that state building referred to the material development i.e. infrastructure.

Rahimullah Yusufzai opined that Pakistan would not have broken up had justice been dispensed and stressed the need for justice and equal opportunities for all regions and ethnic groups to strengthen the federation and end sense of deprivation.

He maintained that the youth forming an overwhelming majority of the population in Pakistan was keen to serve the nation and improve the country’s image and standing at the international level provided they were given opportunities.