Garhi Khuda Bukhsh’s youth protest in capital

Unemployment grads protest against lack of employment opportunities.

ISLAMABAD: Unemployed under-graduates and graduates from Garhi Khuda Bukhsh protested in front of National Press Club Islamabad today, against the lack of employment opportunities in the country.

Manzoor Hussain Bhatto leading the protests told Express Tribune that the objective of this demonstration is to assert the suffering faced by the youth who even after getting good education face destitute conditions. We, who are unemployed, he continued, want the present government to realize the impact of their ‘poor’ policies which is faced by the poor masses.

The protesters claimed that they had set up a hunger strike camp near the Benazir Bhutto shrine to bring to attention to their concerns, but on the assurance of MNA Faryal Talpur, they had called it off.

“Fifteen months had passed since our hunger strike and not a single representative of the government had addressed our issues,” said Ashiq Ali Laghari, one of the many angry protestors, “therefore we decided to borrow some money and come to the capital city to protest.”

Talking about the disregard of the government, Ghulam Abbas Chandio and Abdul Shakoor Kulhoro residents of Garhi Khuda Bukhsh, said that their camp had been here since two weeks and not a single representative of federal government had acknowledged their presence.

“Only now, after finding out that we are come from Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto’s native town, that a representative on the behalf of Senator Safdar Abbasi and Naheed Khan visited the camp,” they said, “there are ten unemployed persons in our camp who served as Benazir Bhutto’s private security guards.” They demanded the Prime Minister Gilani to give attention to the miseries of the unemployed youth.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2010.