By: Asim Nawaz/Editor
Pakistan is having a youth bulge but youth participation in the electoral process is extremely low when compared to other democracies including India. There is a dire need to increase the young voter turnout otherwise democracy cannot flourish in the country.
These concerns were raised at a discourse organized by PILDAT in collaboration with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Pakistan on the subject of ‘Missing Young Voters of Pakistan’ in Islamabad on Thursday.
Dr. Niels Hegewisch, Country Director, FES Pakistan, reiterated the German organization’s dedication to creating socially democratic states around the globe. One of their aims in Pakistan is to promote the role and participation of youth in democratic practices of the country as “infusing youth into politics and legislation is the true way of forming a representative democracy in a country.”
Ms. Qurat-ul-Ain Fatima, Director Media Coordination and Outreach Wing & Director Protocol, ECP, shared that ECP’s SVEEP and internship programmes were designed to engage young people and educate them on voting and elections. She said: “ECP has focused on local government elections to encourage youth to vote and even contest as candidates; with KP and Sindh allocating 5% of their seats to youth. Similar strategies need to be devised and implemented on provincial and national level”. She further touched upon the issues faced during voting in rural areas & the lack of democratic practices employed within political parties.
Dr. Ali Muhammad Malik, Deputy Secretary of Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP) highlighted the efforts undertaken by Prime Minister’s Office of Youth Affairs to engage youth of the country. To capitalize on such a potential resource, the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP) was established, which provides a window of opportunity through a variety of young schemes that envision youth growth through educational, economic, and social empowerment to tackle life’s problems. Once streamlined via empowerment, this considerable part of the general population provides a demographic edge for accelerating and sustaining extraordinary growth.
Ms. Shaheera Jalil AlBasit, Advocate for Pakistan’s Youth Election Quota Campaign, stressed the importance of having youth representation in the legislative bodies and the resulting impact this would have on future policy development. She shared her experience of advocating for gun safety laws and the campaign ‘March for Our Lives’ in United States of America. She said: “The reason behind youth not casting votes is not due to logistical issues but due to a lack of interest within the young body. We need to create and maintain their interest so that they internalise the importance of their vote and come out on Election Day.” She then shared key highlights of the Bill she had introduced in National Assembly of Pakistan to have reserved seats in legislature and political bodies for youth. Its three main demands include: 30% of the total candidates of political parties should be youth and the duty of financing these candidates’ campaigns should be on the parties themselves. Lastly, 30% of leadership and central positions in political parties be awarded to young candidates. The bill has been referred to the Committee of Parliamentary Affairs for review.
Asking the important questions, Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, President PILDAT, in his opening presentation explained the impact of this low youth participation will have by weakening the democratic governance system of this country. He said: “In Pakistan, TLP is the top party granting their tickets to youth. The largest and mainstream parties do not even make it into the top five. 46% of the tickets need to be awarded to youth in proportion to their population. We need to address this issue and ensure youth’s increased representation and participation before the next elections”. He followed this by giving a series of suggestions to ECP, political parties and young people themselves on what they can do to mobilise the youth of Pakistan and improve youth voter turnout in the next general elections.
Participants who joined the dialogue were from Media, Civil Society, Think Tanks, and Universities.