Punjab Government Department of Culture, Information and Youth Affairs Secretary Mohai-uddin Wani has said that the Punjab and the federal government attached little importance to issues of youth and culture and asked the bureaucracy to only ‘sign on a dotted line’.
He was addressing at a conference organised by Sahil, an NGO, in collaboration with Actionaid at a local club on Wednesday. The aim behind the event was to create awareness among the youth. “The federal and provincial officials only meet once or twice every year to take up issues. Apart from these meetings we have nothing to do,” Wani said. He was of the opinion that youth should convince the government to be more active in resolving youth issues.
Advisor to Punjab Chief Minister Zakia Shahnawaz was the chief guest and Health Parliamentary Secretary Dr Saeed Elahi was the guest of honour on the occasion. Parliamentarians from various parties, Dr Faiza Ashgar, Dr Samia Amjad and Amna Buttar also participated in the conference. MNA Dr Donia Aziz, Dr Irfan from Plan Pakistan, Amna Qureshi from Rahnuma and Daood from Actionaid also participated in the conference, but Wani was noticed for his much candid talk with the participants.
Dr Elahi said that present provincial government had done a lot for the youth because PML (N) believed that country’s future was linked to a dynamic youth. He said that Islam gave the basic right to women and children 1400 years ago but the modern democratic countries exploited the Third World when it came to youth affairs.
He said that the Punjab government had spent about Rs 46 billion on health sector and about 6000 doctors have been regularized in which 4000 were medical officers and 2000 were specialists and consultants, and they all represented the country’s youth. He told that government was concerned about female workers and about 7500 nurses had been regularized.
Zakia Shahnawaz said that the government needed to check corruption to provide relief to the people. She said that there were about 70 women parliamentarians in the Punjab Assembly, and if they worked for the betterment of women and children, a clear change could be witnessed within months.
Daood said that since the masses paid their taxes, it was the government’s responsibility to provide required facilities to the people. He said that the private education had destroyed our basic education system and now was the time for government to change its policy.
