ISLAMABAD: The government is ready to support the country’s youth in startups as they are s the biggest asset of Pakistan and their role is important for the development of the country.
This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar while addressing the Youth Convention on Tuesday.
He said that he expects from the youth to set an example for others and work for the betterment of the nation.
Dar added that a special investment council, Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), has been formed and one of its important aspect is to empower the youth as 65 percent young population is Pakistan’s biggest asset.
He said that the SIFC will play an important role in connecting the youth to various opportunities so as to enable them to not only become jobs-takers but also give jobs to others.
Dar said that there is a lot of potential in this country, the world is changing and the future belongs to those who adapt to the demands of the new era, adding Pakistan needs young people who think beyond the traditional status quo and are not afraid to challenge it.
He said that education has been the first priority of the government and it tried to allocate from its meagre resources as much as possible for the education. He urged the students to get benefit from the education not only in the class but also outside the class. He said that education is the only weapon which can be used to change the world.
Dar said that the unity is strength of Pakistan and this strength is the future of the country. He said that there should be no resentment towards ‘mother’: you cannot be angry with the country. You can have differences or difference of opinion and demands and have the right to present them to any government but “my message to the gathering is that terrorism is not acceptable in the name of resentment”. He added that this is what everyone needs to think with clarity not to get trapped because sometimes youth and children get trapped by emotions. He said that he was a clear-minded person and he thinks that the extremism should not be allowed. He said that when his party came into power in 2013 their manifesto was to eliminate extremism, fix the economy and end load-shedding.
Minister for Energy Owais Leghari, while speaking on the occasion, said that a 2-hour load-shedding can save Rs50 billion. He said that Pakistan’s installed capacity is 39,000-MW and government is making capacity payment of 35,000-MW and average electricity being used during the entire year is 7,000-MW.
The federal minister said that reforms in the energy sector are inevitable and there is no doubt that rates of electricity in Pakistan are not only exorbitant but also very expensive in the region.
He said that 1,845-MW is always available in the system to provide 85-hour electricity that cost Rs50 billion and 2-hour load shedding can save this amount. He added that the capacity payment is made to avert load-shedding.
The minister said that the reason for this variation of using 7,000-MW in winter and 24,000-MW in summer for only 80 hours and rest of electricity remains idle. The minister said 9,000-MW electricity is being used by the inefficient fans when there are 30-watt efficient fans available. The government plan would be to motivate efficient use of these fans so that the electricity’s demand decreases in summer and increases in winter to ensure that less electricity remain idle.
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