Federal Finance Minister is singing the admirations of improving economic indicators while in reality the economic crisis has increased unemployment in country. According to a survey conducted in the provincial capital Peshawar there are currently three to four unemployed people in every household.
If we have look at the local media industry about three hundred journalists are unemployed who are preferring to go abroad and many have already moved to USA or other European countries.
Agreeing to an estimate 65% of Pakistan’s population consists of young people including boys and girls from eighteen to twenty-eight years of age. It should be the best thing for the economy of any country that it have jobs and number of working people but this is useful when the economy is flourishing and the best employment opportunities are available in that country.
Nonetheless when the economic condition of a country is bad or employment is not available then the young population becomes a burden. Due to the twin crises of rising inflation and unemployment and worsening economic condition a large number of citizens are crossing the border illegally and many of whom die due to fraud by agents or human smugglers. On the other hand these inhumane and illegal trafficking elements extort huge sums of money from people who want to go abroad.
According to media reports smugglers are charging up to Rs 500,000 to take a person across the border or transport them through the mountainous regions to Europe. In the hope of finding a better life, people leave their families behind and put themselves in a vulnerable position where they can fall into the hands of various thugs (gangs) or even be captured by the law enforcement agencies.
Also included is the issue of human trafficking where abducted children or women are smuggled out of the country through specific routes. Incidents have also come to light where security personnel work hand-in-hand with smugglers as bribery is also on the rise.
While many believe that strengthening security and border checks as well as punishing criminals will help to reduce the problem but it is not a final solution as well as the only a helpful measure.
The heart of this problem lies in the standard of living that Pakistan offers are extremely low quality of life indices, deteriorating urban infrastructure and services lack of healthcare and severely limited employment opportunities, are forcing the people to resort to extreme actions. Thus the Citizens must be promised for batter life style, So that daily life becomes less of a struggle for survival.
The experts says that for backward countries like Pakistan, natural disasters are also harming the life of the poor people, that is why the recent monsoon disasters will add the fuel to the fire as millions of people have been displaced by destroying their houses. Then they will also tray to find suitable alternatives. The government should realize that such problems should be solved on a war footing as only steady development and fulfillment of long-held promises will reduce the hardships of the people.
So for this purpose instead of creating emergency programs the government has to create long-term programs that are attractive to the youth, that they prefer to work in their own country as an alternative of going abroad because of lack of skills and low wages at home because they think that they can earn more to word abroad. There the problem is that when such youth that go out, they are hired on very low wages because they have no skills. Therefore, the government needs to create the best program to prepare these youth for hard work in other countries, otherwise this youth population of the country will be left-over.
