Empowering the youth

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif continues emphasising the importance of empowering its youth population to pave a roadway to success and development. However, his speech at the D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation in Egypt last week woefully underscored how much more his government needs to do to empower the youth if he wants to walk the walk.

While Shehbaz's beloved laptop schemes have been relatively successful at provincial and now federal level, they are still extremely limited - the federal government has handed out 600,000 laptops to deserving students this year. While the handout may seem significant given Pakistan's budget woes, most rich and middle-income countries give all government school students free laptops. That means the initiative here is less groundbreaking and more about modeling a successful foreign practice and implementing it on a limited budget, even though that limits its effectiveness.

But beyond laptops, the government has done little to create opportunities for the youth, in fact, it is actively undercutting some of the same 'achievements' that Shehbaz was highlighting. The tone-deaf attempt to highlight how Pakistan has become a hub for IT freelancers is a prominent example. The claim ignores the impact of the national firewall and internet throttling on the IT sector, as freelancers generally need uninterrupted access to reliable high-speed internet, rather than the comically slow product the government often forces down our throats.

Meanwhile, freelancing itself is not always a good thing. Many people prefer the income stability and job security that come with full-time employment, but Pakistan's disastrous economic situation means that even a few hours of poorly paid - by international standards - work can net an IT professional more money than they would make in several weeks for a local employer. Also, freelance work is only one step above remittances in terms of its positive impact on the broader economy. It is not a growth engine, especially for a country of Pakistan's size. If Shehbaz wants to empower the youth, he needs to revitalise the entire economy.