Pakistan’s First National Youth Employment Policy, A Dream Come True

Pakistan’s First National Youth Employment Policy, A Dream Come True

(Asghar Ali Mubarak) The launch of Pakistan’s first National Youth Employment Policy on International Youth Day is an acknowledgement that Pakistan’s future lies not in its factories, roads or buildings, but in the hands of its youth. If this policy is implemented in its spirit, it will not only eradicate unemployment from the country but will also put Pakistan on the path of economic development once again. Now the ball is in the court of the ruling circles and implementing agencies to see how they can turn this dream into a reality. It is a great honor for this analyst to be invited to the launch ceremony of Pakistan’s first National Youth Employment Policy on the occasion of International Youth Day in Islamabad on August 12, 2018.
Pakistan is currently at a juncture in its history where its greatest strength—its young population—is a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, these youth have the potential to change the country’s destiny; on the other, they are frustrated by the lack of employment opportunities.
Realizing the dire situation, the Government of Pakistan has approved the country’s first formal National Youth Employment Policy under the Prime Minister’s Youth Program.
Pakistan’s first National Youth Employment Policy is not just a paper document, but a revolutionary plan to make the youth skilled and self-sufficient.
The policy’s main objectives and pillars focus on market demand and modern technology rather than traditional educational degrees. Its most prominent aspects are as follows:
35% quota for women:
For the first time in the country’s history, at least a 35% share of women in the workforce and employment opportunities has been made mandatory to bring them into the economic mainstream.
Access to the global market:
A major goal of this policy is to create millions of international job opportunities for skilled Pakistani youth in countries like Gulf countries (Qatar, Saudi Arabia), Turkey, and the US.
Digital Youth Hub:
A central online portal has been established where millions of youth have registered. Local and international job opportunities, scholarships, and training courses have been integrated on this portal.
Promotion of IT and E-Sports:
Pakistan’s first e-sports policy has also been approved under the policy to boost exports to billions of dollars through the gaming and IT sector.
Green Jobs and Environment: The concept of ‘Green Jobs’ has been introduced to deal with environmental change, under which the youth will be given incentives to start eco-friendly businesses.
A different policy from past programs?
In the past, several schemes like ‘Kamiyab Jawan’ or ‘Wazir-e-Azam Loan Scheme’ were launched, but they were mostly limited to temporary or specific projects.
The uniqueness of the current Youth Employment Policy is its systematic and integrated (Whole-of-Government) framework.
It has created coordination between the federation and the provinces and has set a target of establishing ‘Employment Exchanges’ in every district to ensure employment provision at the grassroots level.
In addition, loans worth billions of rupees are also being provided to the youth for business on easy terms under the ‘Youth Business and Agriculture Loan Scheme’.
Success depends on: The challenge of implementation;
Of course, this policy looks very promising and promising on paper, but the real problem in Pakistan has never been the lack of policies, but rather their strict implementation. The following steps are essential to make this policy truly successful:
Political continuity: This policy should continue despite the change of governments so that long-term economic goals can be achieved.
Private sector participation: Government jobs alone cannot be enough; the private sector and industry must be made a part of this policy so that the youth coming out of educational institutions can get direct employment.
Transparency and merit: In the distribution of loans and jobs, merit alone must be maintained, above political affiliations.

The Prime Minister Youth Program of the Government of Pakistan is a major initiative to increase employment opportunities in the country by making the youth economically and educationally independent.
The main objective of this program is to provide financial assistance to the youth on easy terms so that they can start their new businesses, expand agricultural activities, or get job opportunities abroad. Under this program, youth between the ages of 18 and 45 can get loans on easy terms from 21 different commercial, Islamic and government banks in Pakistan.
A completely interest-free loan of up to Rs 5 lakh is given to start a small business so that the youth do not have to bear the financial burden. For larger businesses, only 5 percent markup is taken on loans between Rs 5 lakh and 15 lakh, while large loans between Rs 15 lakh and 75 lakh are available at just 7 percent markup. A long and easy period of 7 to 8 years is given for the repayment of these loans, which also includes a grace period of one year so that the business can be well-established.
Youth who have job offers from abroad can also take an interest-free loan of up to Rs 1 million for visa, travel, and start-up expenses. Along with financial assistance, the program is also playing an important role in the education sector, under which free laptops are given to talented university students, and skills are taught to youth in IT and other technical fields absolutely free of cost. To maintain transparency and speed in this entire program, all applications are received only through the official online portal,
The Prime Minister’s Youth Program (PMYP) and the National Youth Employment Policy have set a target of increasing the participation of women in Pakistan’s workforce to 35 percent so that women can be economically empowered by providing equal employment opportunities. Under this mission, the government has specially introduced an initiative called “Girls Learn, Girls Earn”, which aims to make women a part of the job market by teaching them modern skills.
As part of the measures taken for women’s inclusion in the workforce and employment, 25 percent of the total budget of all categories in the Prime Minister’s Business and Agriculture Loan Scheme has been allocated exclusively for women so that they can start their own businesses independently.
In addition, to encourage women in educational and technical fields, a 50 percent quota has been kept for women in both the Prime Minister’s Laptop Scheme and the Free Skill Development Programme (Hunarmandi Courses) so that they can acquire expertise in IT and high-tech sectors and get freelancing or regular jobs.
Along with these federal efforts, major employment projects like “She Threads” are being implemented at the provincial level under the supervision of Maryam Nawaz, where rural women are given a monthly stipend of Rs. 15,000 and transport allowance during advanced training in textiles and garments and are being provided immediate jobs in the garment industry upon completion of the training.
This commitment and institutional reforms of the government are playing a key role in providing sustainable employment to the country’s highly educated and less educated women based on equal merit and skills.
To access the global market, the Government of Pakistan and the Prime Minister’s Youth Program have taken comprehensive steps to enable youth and women to engage in e-commerce, freelancing and exports internationally so as to increase the inflow of dollars into the country’s economy.
For this purpose, under the National Digital Growth Strategy, international standard training is being provided to youth across Pakistan to sell their products on global platforms like Amazon, eBay, Shopify and Alibaba.
At the same time, millions of youth have been trained to provide services on Upwork and Fiverr under the IT Skill Development Program, thanks to which the Pakistani freelance community has gained a prominent position in the global digital services market. To connect women and small traders producing physical products to international markets, the government has introduced exhibitions in collaboration with the “E-Commerce Gateway” and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), where local handicrafts and textile products are showcased to global buyers. To finance these efforts, soft loans of up to Rs 75 lakh are being provided to IT, e-commerce and smart tech startups on a preferential basis under the Prime Minister’s Loan Scheme for international logistics, visa fees, marketing and purchase of digital tools.
Furthermore, the government is working with the State Bank to further facilitate international payment gateways so that small exporters and freelancers do not face any hurdles in remitting their funds directly and securely from the global market to Pakistan.