Youth problems to be resolved on priority basis, says minister

Islamabad : Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad has said that problems of the youth will be resolved in and outside parliament, pledging human rights will be protected, says a press release.

Addressing a conference on “The Role of Parliament in Protection of Human Rights and Justice,” organised by the Network for Human Rights and Justice (NHRJ) here on Thursday, the minister said that the youth and younger generation have to play a leading role for the better tomorrow of the country.

“The progress and prosperity of the country are directly linked to the leading role of our younger generation and they should be more proactive to assume responsibility in a more responsible way,” he added.

The conference was attended among others by Justice (r) Ali Nawaz Chohan, chairman National Commission for Human Rights Pakistan, Sumaira Saddiqui, former federal secretary, Shaheen Kausar Dar, former deputy speaker Azad Kashmir, Maria Iqbal Tarana, chairman Youth Forum Kashmir, Rashid Ahmad Chaughtai, Lubna Azad, executive director NHRJ, Ubaid Qureshi, president Youth Parliament, Dr. Murtaza Mughal, Nisar Shah advocate, Muhammad Zulqarnain Sulehria, director NHRJ, Sajjid Akbar Abbasi, chairman Human Rights Organization Punjab and others.

In her opening remarks, Lubna Azad, executive director NHRJ, underlined that human rights should be safeguarded all the time. She said that people’s complaint cell with regard of human rights failed to yield any tangible results, stressing that more needs to be done to protect human rights.

“The government should adopt measures to empower lower and middle class of the society to ensure that their rights are protected,” she remarked. She went on to say that the government should expedite efforts to get all children enrolled in schools even in remote parts of the country.

She said that there is dire need to safeguard rights of women, children and specially widow and handicapped.

The government should introduce reforms and measures so that children and minor need not work before their maturity age, she added. She said that NHRJ has been striving to run charity medical camps for general and deserving people, ensure vocational courses for young girls and house wives and delivers food packages to people of poor areas.

The NHRJ would launch an effective programme under which brilliant and deserving students would be sponsored from low or middle class backgrounds to fully fund their higher education.

The NHRJ runs programmes to dig water wells in rural areas and other places where there is acute shortage of clean drinking water.