Election campaigns are heating up. Around 46 million young voters who mostly use social media are expected to take part in general elections 2018, which is around 43 percent of the total registered voters as per the Final Electoral Rolls-2018 by the ECP. The 46 million youth is almost equal to the total female registered voters as per ECP website - that is huge! Hence, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the country’s youth bulge is going to be a centerpiece of general elections 2018.
PTI has been the first to come forth and has presented its 100-day wish list where focus on youth and job creation is one of the tenets. Other political parties may follow soon with their manifestos.
The latest UNDP Pakistan’s National Human Development Report (NHDR) highlights that the country needs to create 4.5 million jobs over the next 5 years (0.9 million jobs annually) at the current labour force participation rate (LFPR) of 53.2 percent and unemployment at 5.8 percent, which could rise to 1.3 million jobs annually if the LFPR rises to 66.7 percent.
PTI has been twice as ambitious and has come up with an objective to create 10 million jobs in the next five years in its 100-days plan, which means around 2 million jobs annually. What is important here however, is whoever comes in power needs to take heed and make youth development their economic and social agenda.
The National Human Development Report (NHDR) report launched earlier this month by United UNDP Pakistan has recently been a hot topic for debate –not for its hits or misses like BR Research’s article “Rethinking human development” (published on May 09, 2018) talked about, but for political point scoring; be it the time frame that it covers or the timing of its launch.
The key here however, is that the focus of the report is on capatilising the youth dividend through investment in three aspects: quality education, gainful employment and meaningful engagement. It could be said that the timing of the report is a reminder to the political parties to focus on human development with general elections fast approaching.
Though youth development – or the lack there of – is being considered by many to play pivotal role in the agenda setting for the political parties, one must not forget that it takes more than social media presence or being registered voters to get voters to come out on the election day. 2013 is a recent reminder. At the risk of repeating, there is a need to address “meaningful engagement” highlighted by UNDP and hence human development from expanded civic/political engagement indicators (as highlighted in the BR Research’s article aforementioned).
Getting a good youth turnout requires political consciousness, which needs planning and efforts not only from the educational institutes but also the political parties – much beyond the ambitious promises made in the manifestos.
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