‘Youth Senate’ set up with high hopes

ISLAMABAD: To mark the World Youth Day, ex-members of Pakistan Youth Parliamentarians along with other young achievers established the Youth Senate of Pakistan (YSP) on Thursday. Hanan Ali Abbasi, Former Minister for Information at Youth Parliament, said the YSP would revive and revitalise a nation wide initiative and spread its wings in all parts of Pakistan.

“YSP will focus on educating, empowering and uniting young people to bring about positive political and social change in the country,” he added.

Former Speaker National Assembly Gohar Ayub will be the Chairman of YSP, while a 10 member steering committee consisting of parliamentarians and bureaucrats will be formed to lead and guide the working of youth senate.

Under YSP, a team of three young Pakistani volunteers, consisting of a Youth Ambassador, Deputy Youth Ambassador and an Assistant Youth Ambassador, will be placed in various countries of the world, especially in the countries having similar type of programmes. The young senators will be place on short-term assignments of between 3-12 months.

He further said that YSP was going to be operated by Khidmat Gar Foundation.

He expressed grave concern over the fact that youth was facing a multitude of problems like poverty, low education levels, unemployment, and the resulting frustration.

“The youth do not get enough opportunities to showcase their talent. A very large part of our population comprises of young people and we should invest in them,” said Abbasi.

The youth senators will initially be nominated on a yearly basis. All young people between 18 to 29 years of age can apply for the youth senate through the website.

A total of 35 senators will be selected from across Pakistan, 13 from Punjab, eight from Sindh, five from Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, three from Balochistan, two from Islamabad, two from Federally Administered Tribal Areas and one each from Azad Kashimr and Giligt Baltistan region. The founding members of Youth Senate include Sonia Hamid, Yashfeen ZAfeer, Amman Tareen, Muhammad Saleem, Sajid Nisar and Imran Manzoor.

The young senators dedicated the setting up of YSP to the six ‘martyrs’ from the Youth Parliament, who lost their lives in the crash of Airblue crash.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2010.