Pakistan Thereek Insaf (PTI) will award 25 percent of party tickets to young candidates in the forthcoming election in a bid to change the "country's political environment and Pakistan fate", PTI chief Imran Khan said on Sunday.
He announced this decision while unveiling his party's youth policy during a convention held to galvanise the youth ahead of election. The meeting was attended by 10,000 of party members at the Expo Centre here.
Imran Khan said: "Our Youth Policy does not believe in one-off gimmicks - it endeavours to permanently empower Pakistan's youth."
Urging the youth to "rise and fight this war" along with him, Imran said: "We don't need politicians to bring about a change...we need our Youth Force to rise and crush the status quo."
He also resolved to improve the status of women in Pakistan and said that it would be brought about with the help of the country's youth.
According to him, PTI's youth policy was focused on empowering the youth and enabling them towards future leadership.
PTI, he said, was committed to enable 25 percent of its young representatives to contest general elections and hold positions of power and become future leaders and policymakers.
He said the policy "aims at establishing an autonomous institution, National Youth Foundation, linked with the Ministry of Human Resources with a centralised database of youth which shall oversee the Jawan Markaz, a community center that shall be set up in every town, tehsil and union council levels.
He said that the policy "endeavours to bring about change through empowerment of youth, providing uniform education for all and skill development through vocational programmes...to tackle unemployment".
Improving social life and health, sports, arts, entrepreneurship and research development was also part of "this diverse policy".
He claimed that PTI "shall increase the education budget from 1.8 percent of GDP to 5 percent along with increasing vocational training for two million people from 300,000.
"Scholarships, grants and student facilitation shall also be a priority under PTI's youth policy."
He also vowed to set up rehabilitation centers, especially "to help recuperate those locked within conflict zones, with special attention to Balochistan and tribal areas".
The proceedings of the convention were opened by the party's Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi. PTI's President Javed Hashmi, Waleed Iqbal, Amna Sadaf, Arsalan Ghuman and members of PTI's youth task force also spoke on the occasion.