There’s a mindset that needs to be changed
At this point in time, almost every youngster in Pakistan endorses the fact that the country is currently plagued by sheer unemployment. Why is it that a considerable proportion of our youth is currently unemployed? There are several reasons behind it that must be analysed first retrospectively. Our rulers have been swaying between nationalising and privatising the public institutions for a long time now. This continues till date as in order set a successful economic system in place, almost all the governments keep only a few institutions like Police, Justice system, Education and health etc. under its control while privatize the others. During the reign of ZAB, the institutions were nationalised after which the process of privatisation began. Today, most of the institutions of the country are being privatised as for instance PIA. This is the main reason as to why the level of unemployment is rocketing day by day.
Our youth is immensely inclined towards the government jobs and the main reason behind it is the lack of accountability. While, in the private institutions the head demands accountability and immense workload. Whereas, an inefficient government worker not only gets to keep his job but gets paid for it even after the retirement in form of pension.
Before moving on, it is imperative to carry out an objectively detailed analysis of the private sector. The private sector seems to be utterly disappointed by the credentials of our youth. The main reason behind it is the absence of standard educational institutes in the country with the exception of a few. Consequently, their graduates are denied jobs by good institutions thereby, rendering thousands of them unemployed every year. The story does not end here. Another reason is the lack of investment in private businesses. Neither foreign nor local investors are willing to invest owing to the lack of future business prospects. Hence, it is important to understand the reasons behind this bleak situation.
Currently, the world’s economy is taking a 360 degrees shift from manufacturing sector to the service sector with hotelling and tourism topping the list. However, unfortunately, Pakistan is far behind as far as hotelling and tourism are concerned, owing to the pathetic security situation of the country. Furthermore, the manufacturing sector is not able to sustain itself on account of immense load shedding and high expenses related to electricity. The drowning businesses are being supported through meagre subsidies as a result of which, the national debts keep on increasing. Public is being burdened with indirect taxation to collect revenues, which are then utilised to subsidise the export industry. This lands wealth into the pockets of few and makes the poor poorer. This has been done merely to show that the government has been able to increase foreign exchange reserves. It is, in fact, nothing more than a political stunt. Fleecing the general public for making a few (exporters) rich is what it is. Moreover, it allows the Finance Minister to boast about governments’ “achievements”. If the government is genuinely inclined towards reforming the manufacturing sector, cheap electricity alternatives need to be found so that the economy can be made better without providing subsidies. These subsidies can therefore, be used for the public good. Cheap energy is the solution to the problems being faced by the manufacturing sector currently. Even though our manufacturing sector is reducing in size with every passing day, we can still divert our resources to the service sector. Unfortunately, service sector too however, is suffering in the hands of increasing extremism and political uncertainty in the country. Tourists are wary of the security situation. There is a particular mindset behind this increasing extremism that needs to be dealt with as well on the ideological level. Consequently, there is plausible causal relationship between extremism and unemployment in Pakistan.
If we analyse the situation through a social lens, international cinema has left a huge impact on the minds of our youth. They are unable to accept ordinary jobs and prefer to sit at home rather than doing a commonplace job thereby burdening their already struggling families. This problem is rather common among the lower middle and lower working class as the upper classes tend to either assimilate their kids in their family businesses or secure good jobs through their contacts or wealth. On the other hand, poverty and inflation are increasing day by day, making it even tougher for the poor household to survive. Hence, the unemployed graduates are eventually forced to settle for ordinary jobs as they have a family to feed.
At this point in time, the government and the general public need to understand that the only thing we need to focus on right now is identifying the root causes of Pakistan’s wretched economic situation. Manufacturing sector needs to be reformed by adopting/developing cheap and long lasting electricity alternatives. Secondly, in short term we need to work towards making our service sector flourish through the promotion of tourism and services that can be done only after we counter extremism first. The youth as well the general public needs to play its part in this firstly by realising the actual culprit behind their misery and secondly, by taking initiatives at both individual and social level to counter the menace .
