Minister promises youth proper guidance, platform

LAHORE:Punjab Minister for Youth Affairs Malik Taimoor Masood presided over a high-level meeting regarding Provincial Youth Coordination Mechanism at National Hockey Stadium on Wednesday.

DG Sports Punjab Tariq Qureshi, DG PITB Sajid Latif, DG TEVTA, M Asad of UNFPA, Director Admin Syed Umair Hassan, Deputy Secretary Education Punjab Shahzad Jafri, DEO Literacy Department Ghulam Ahmed, Project Manager PILDAT Faheem Khan, Technical Consultant Ms Amna Kausar and Maham Taj and Deputy Director Youth Affairs Nazish Noor also attended the meeting.

Addressing the meeting, Punjab Minister for Youth Affairs Taimoor Masood said Pakistan is quite fortunate country for having around 63 percent youth. “Our youth is very talented. They just need proper direction, guidance and platform to polish their skills and demonstrate their real potential,” he added.

He further said that as many as 40,000 youth have been given entrepreneurship training under the E-Rozgaar Programme. “We are bringing more programmes to give our youth maximum opportunities to excel in their respective fields. We are ready to extend every kind of cooperation and facilitation to PILDAT, Literacy, PITB, HEC and TEVTA Departments in their upcoming youth programmes”.

The minister said that Youth Affairs Department Punjab in the collaboration of PITB is making effective efforts to make the e-Rozgaar Project a success. “Dozens of e-Rozgaar Programme centres are working right now in the province where thousands of youth are earning respectable livelihood for their families”.

In his address, DG Sports Punjab Tariq Qureshi said that it is right time to chalk out a comprehensive plan, which could give real benefit to our youth. “Our youth needs to be given technical education. It is a modern era and in this challenging time every youth must learn a skill along with his/her education,” he stressed.

Highlighting initiatives of Youth Affairs Department Punjab, Qureshi said that Youth Affairs Department Punjab is providing platform for sports development facilitation and promotion of talent. “It is working comprehensively for youth empowerment, encouragement, entrepreneurship and development,” he elaborated.