UNEMPLOYMENT AND PAKISTANI YOUTH

There is no denying the fact that joblessness has wrecked the nerves of the Pakistani youth who, despite being qualified and having degrees, are unable to find a job. Almost everyday we see young graduate boys and girls, many of whom with master degrees, roaming about on roads desperately attempting to get hold of a job. But wherever they go and whichever door they knock at, they get one response No vacancy.

This scarcity of employment opportunities is one reason behind the ever-increasing crime rate as, finding no other way out, the jobless feel forced to break the lockers of safes stuffed with cash and jewellery, or snatch away cars and other vehicles at gunpoint. And for obvious reasons, there is no limit to crime. Once the helpless and the jobless enters the arena of crime, he is bound to go a step forward everyday. Each day, he commits a new crime bigger than the previous one.

The story does not end here as many of the unemployed try to seek refuge and mental peace in drugs and the drug addiction too has no level of degradation. Once again the addict, thanks to the joblessness (ironically speaking), feels attracted to the domain of crime and plunges into the abyss of degradation, hopeless to find any help from any concerned quarter.

With the ever-increasing population, the government finds it hard to provide jobs to all the youth, educated or otherwise. As the growth rate is much higher as compared to the resource generation rate, it engulfs all the generated resources. Accordingly, to overcome this grim situation which the country is facing, the people must join hands with the government and the sincerest efforts must be made at all levels to kill the menace of unemployment.

Another very obvious reason behind the joblessness is the ban the government has imposed on jobs which seems eternal with no end. It is not likely to be lifted soon as the government lacks resources and funds on account of the political instability the country has been confronting. The analysts and intellectuals opine that the rate of unemployment would go uncontrollable in case concrete measures are not taken today.

A stable government is all the more important if the country is to push the spectre of unemployment away from its boundaries. The political stability in a country encourages the foreign as well as the local investors to set up new industries or launch new enterprises and ventures in the country which, in turn, open up a lot of opportunities for new jobs. Further, with the stability girdling the country, the government itself feels encouraged to set up new industries where a good number of the jobless can be accommodated. But it seems as if the stability in the political arena is a far-fetched dream.

Not only that, the government officials, the bureaucracy and above all the elected representatives, who get elected with the promise of serving the nation and the poor masses, misappropriate a major portion of funds and the foreign aid and loan which Pakistan procures for its development. Consequently, no new roads are constructed, no new industries are being set up and no new educational institutions are established. The development work comes to a standstill. How can the youth find the job in such conditions?

The country needs scrupulous and conscientious leadership which could have a control over all these malpractices. It is only and only then that the country would be able to stand on its own feet and the youth would not be left unemployed any longer.

The country, as a matter of fact, must not rely on the foreign aid. Pakistani nation should itself do something to generate maximum resources to solve its problems rather than asking the foreign donor agencies and countries for help. This is against the traditions of the Muslims who ruled the world and that too for a considerably long time. Another fact to which this unemployment can be attributed is the lack of planning. Both the government and the private sector are opening up new educational institutions without any planning thus adding to the list of the unemployed. And of course, the authorities in the Education Department must formulate policies to check the growing trends of use of unfair means in the examinations because of which the undeserving get the degrees and stand in the queue of the job seekers. Such people in a way diminish the chances of getting a job of the deserving unemployed youth.

Jobbery and nepotism are other maladies the unemployed have to cope with. This in one reason why the talented and capable genius leaves the country as soon as he or she gets an offer from abroad. Consequently, the country is deprived of the services and the intellect of the intelligent. This rampant joblessness has another very serious impact. A young man, unable to find a job, develops psychological disorders and the country loses a pearl in the depths of a bottomless ocean. Looking at the fate of such educated beings, the youth, still in the educational institutions, give up the idea of getting any further education as it seems its own fate not very much different.

The responsible quarters must open up their eyes to the gravity of the situation and must realise that the future of their own children will not be different from those suffering today on account of joblessness.