Promoting civic responsibility: Experts urge youth to take their role in society seriously

Speakers stress on greater engagement with issues.

ISLAMABAD:

While the youth should ideally be taught that actions speak louder than words, ground realities in Pakistan are divergent in terms of instilling civic responsibility in the upcoming generation.

Considering this uphill negative trend, experts at a seminar organised at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) enlightened students about upcoming challenges and role of youth in acknowledging their roles as responsible, democratic citizens.

With much hue and cry over the prevailing situation, Rab Nawaz, editor of the bilingual youth magazine The Laaltain, pointed out the banner at the entrance which listed disciplinary actions and said, “These instructions should not be there in the first place. These simple disciplinary instructions should be embedded in an individual’s mind from the beginning.”

Highlighting factors affecting youth-civic engagement, he said the political system, civil society, culture, and socioeconomic and demographic factors collectively contributed towards understanding civic responsibility. However, he lamented that Pakistan’s youth was divided in many aspects and has not been able to develop a lifestyle that resonates with ever-changing developments.



“A society is like a picture and it takes quite a number of pixels for a picture to come together perfectly,” said Musarat Jabeen of the CIIT Abbottabad Department of Development Studies. While narrating personal experiences, she informed that students of Pakistani universities have good working knowledge of facts and figures, but they lack analytical skills.

According to BBA student Haider Hassan, youngsters refuse to engage in events that benefit the society in general because most their woes go unheard.

“Protests by youngsters around the world are registered and things are changed to meet their requirements. Here, bringing a positive change through such protests is a far cry,” he said. “The fact that no one takes them seriously has pushed the youth to the verge of mass depression.”

Former member of the Council of Islamic Ideology Mohsin Naqvi shed light on religion during his presentation and said, “Due to increasing polarisation of society, larger numbers of people are being killed in the name of religion.”

He opined that in a society like ours, interfaith interaction is more important than ordinary dialogue.

CIIT’s Department of Meteorology Chairperson Dr Shahina Tariq said Pakistan — with its 2.8 per cent population growth rate — was confronted with several environmental challenges for which she suggested adoption of cleaner technologies and recycling as easy, viable solutions that can be implemented by promoting environmental ethics among the youth.

Senior journalist Muhammad Ziauddin spoke about the role of media in changing the younger generation’s perspective. The country’s media, along with civil society, has been fighting against military regimes and still assures delivery of high impact public service messages and campaigns.

“With 80 channels now operating in the country,” Ziauddin said, “Media outlets have played a critical role in educating citizens on civic responsibility. However, it has also become more market-driven and public service messages are gradually being marginalised.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2013.