Anashka Afzaal
When education comes and the economy improves all the matters will be resolved. On a very pleasant day recently I was driving to work from home. I usually don’t drive but that day I made my driver sit back and drove myself as I was enjoying the weather. I, for first time felt scared and felt that I might get caught for not having my driving license. The police normally doesn’t stop women on the road. Although I follow all the rules and regulations but this time I felt scared for not having my driving license. I asked myself: Anashka why did you feel scared? The answer was the new Pakistan which we have been dreaming of has finally become a reality.Naya Pakistan belongs to all the educated and young people who love their country and want to do something for their country. They are educated they can get great opportunities abroad but they want to stay here in Pakistan and do something for their country.
In my humble point of view a leader is important but not as important as believes and thoughts. I recently attended a conference that focused on the ways to stop the demise of the print media. Out of all the people over there I might have been the only one thinking why not? Better things shall replace. No one in our generation reads newspapers or may be just very rare percentage. At least I don’t. They are so boring and hurt my eyes. Even the Ads have become a joke, leaving a few exceptions! Generation gap is a very big thing. If you ask anyone aged between 18-25 if they read newspapers, the answer would be a no! You know why? Because newspapers are way boring, the youth is more into digital media now exclusively social media. Half of the people that do not read newspapers are the ones who don’t watch the new channels as well. (How do I explain that they do the right thing *wink*).
Anyway, the context of the conference was finding out why the print media is going towards extinction and trying to find ways to save it. Where the entire hall was focusing on excellent suggestions I wanted to say “Let it go man! If it is going towards extinction because it will not have a value in future when all the uncles who read the newspapers die”. I am sorry for being a little blunt and hurting the emotions of uncles who read them every morning. But, I cannot disagree with the fact that if the newspapers and magazines are made more attractive and have something for the youth they’ll definitely have a longer than I anticipate it to have.
The moral of the story is that youth thinks differently, youth is more creative. I just gave a small example of conference in which everyone was at least 10 years older than me.
Ever since the election results have been announced I am very happy I wasn’t a very big supporter of any political party ever. But, I wanted Imran Khan to win this time for all the reasons all his supporters wanted him to win. It felt like things will finally start to make sense. All those people who run out of Pakistan for a better life may return home to find a completely new Pakistan. Pakistan was once a prestigious country in the 70’s and was in good books of every president. Pakistan once had good international image.It might sound hysterical but I have been thinking a lot if I could play a role in the creation of new Pakistan and if by any means I could convey my thoughts to the new leader and the people of Pakistan. I have been thinking what I would do if I was allowed to play a strategic role and give some suggestions.
First of all it means a lot to be a nation, the sense of unity is what can lead greatest changes that even our history is rich of. A nation can do anything and communities cannot do anything no matter how strong they are. No matter which party we supported prior to elections we should now act as one nation and stop creating about a fuss about who won and who lost and why in our respective areas. We shall now emerge as a nation and for once have faith in this new but promising person (although they all make promises, but this one sounds a little serious about his).
Pardon me if my article has turned into a speech or if it is a little too casual for those who are used to read more of the boring ones. But, nothing is worthy if it is not impactful and I am trying to make an impact here.So, please stop nagging and stop thinking negative. IF we don’t emerge as a nation and we don’t show support we’ll fail as a nation and the government will fail too. Sometimes what we do is that we don’t even think as a nation because we’re so fond of the blame game and we’re so used to be couch potatoes that are of use for themselves let it be for others.
At this stage I might not be able to explain the ways in which we can act as a nation but by the end of the article you all might understand where we lag and how shall ach one of us change our thinking and our approach towards democracy from this point onwards.
If anyone is reading me out here today please note that the history will be marked and Pakistan will now become a glorious nation again and that will let our coming generations a pride in their country.
Coming to the suggestion part education and economic growth is very important. If youth is important for the new government it shall incorporate the ideas generated from the young minds. How about one to one conferences in universities with the youth? It’s sad but true that majority of the universities are just creating worthless robots with no skills and education about practical life the challenges within. That’s another chapter of the story though.
Youth had lost faith in politics. I swear! I myself was one of the people who’d like to avoid talking about politics and avoid talk shows to an extent that I even stopped watching news. Imran Khan restored the faith of the youth in politics and this is a huge contribution. Sometimes there are things that are not visible to the naked eye but can be felt by the stakeholders. If it was not Imran Khan, the youth would have kept fleeing away from Pakistan for studies, jobs, and businesses. There was little left for an ordinary person in Pakistan. Qualifications became worthless! Institutes and organizations existed but didn’t perform according to their roles. Let past stay in past now! Let us all see what future brings us but, most importantly, let us all become a part of the future. A leader will have no influence and all his efforts and decision will go in vain if the people don’t have faith in him and don’t follow his instructions.
Do we have another option? A better one? Everyone is tried and tested! Hope and faith shall always be kept alive. A leader shall not be corrupt and non-corrupt leader must be followed for the betterment of the country.
I did not write this article in a day I took time to write. I slept over it. I wanted to write something that makes complete sense to the youth as well as to the authoritative bodies who can play a role in building the future for the generations to come.
This country will see an entirely different fate if the government and the all the bodies controlling the system of the country start working transparently. The solution is the transparency through technology. There is no awareness about laws and bylaws. If I am teenager I won’t know what are the rules and laws associated with the acts I am into. I won’t know my rights and I will keep going blindly. The laws and the bylaws shall be on your fingertips. So hear me out youngster know the laws of your country like a judge does and it’s not difficult. Only if there was a judges panel made to sit in the universities to interact with students sometimes and they be given handbooks and there were some activities. I don’t know may be I am in a trauma for all that could have been done in the last 15 years when we were growing up but then it wasn’t done because the people ruling us had a different mindset and plenty of personal interests in becoming leaders.
The thing is that becoming a leader is great responsibility even if it’s a small project yet it be the whole country and I am glad and I sleep in peace after finding out that Imran Khan has the sense of it. Becoming a prime minister shall not be taken as a joke anymore. I am kind of enjoying my freedom of speech right now! I wish I could insert emojis too. Well, we are youth and that might had made my article more appealing.
The “Tabdeeli” will finally come, although Imran Khan said long ago that “Tabdeeliagaihai” He might have seen it long before anyone else saw.
I have been thinking about transparency for a long time. Imran Khan announced transparency of government bodies. Yes, the government bodies shall not only be transparent they shall be accountable too. Pakistan has huge potential in every dimension whether it is trade, tourism, business, and what not. Could you please tell me who was made responsible for making Pakistan explore its complete potential? No, you can’t! I have always been sick of blame games. Private sectors did pretty well in the times of crisis and became the only reason for which Pakistan is still standing on its feet otherwise some people made it almost impossible.
I think media and social media play a great role in image building for anyone. Okay I will not take all the credit for thinking like that myself and I am sure almost all of you either think the same or agree with me completely.
These can be used as tools for rebuilding the image of Pakistan internationally and give a new meaning to the existence of this country as a nation.Like they used to say in our schools days, “Let’s all join our hands” and be part of a positive change that might turn out to be a revolution in future when this time becomes a history. When I think how powerful media is whether its conventional media or social media I wish there literally is a channel that is solely dedicated to the change that we want to see in Pakistan. That T.V channel has social media platform as well and talks about the work of the government bodies. I wish government has a web based platform to let the people of Pakistan become the change that they want to see in Pakistan!
– The writer is a young entrepreneur who is the CEO of a
digital services company
“SOLUTIONS BRIGADE”
