Karachi to host YLC 2016 in July

Karachi

This year’s edition of the Young Leaders’ Conference (YLC 2016) is scheduled to be held in Karachi from July 26 till July 31.

This year’s theme is ‘The Highway’ and 300 youngsters between the ages of 18-24 will participate in the conference to chart out a prosperous future for the nation and society.

Announcing this at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Waqar Ali of the School of Leadership (SoL) said, “We work with the youth through trainings and aim to inculcate a sense of leadership. We also work with teachers for societal betterment; in essence, we work for positivity.”

Bismah Khan, who is leading the 15th YLC, said, “I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to lead the country’s biggest youth conference. There’s lots of latent potential among the Pakistani youth that needs to be tapped.”

Team member Urooj Mazhar said that the two buzz words all along had been education and training, the latter implying grooming. She was of the view that while we had made lots of progress in education, we continue to trail behind in grooming as evident from our utter lack of tolerance, disruptive tendencies and so on.

“Grooming youngsters is what the YLC specialises in,” she said.

Waqar Ali said that all concepts like ‘globalism’ and ‘clean politics’, words which figure so prominently in the present-day world, had come to him through the YLC. 

He said young people today were clueless about their future; a confused generation. 

“Technology continues to rapidly change the world. As such, the exposure of young people to the dictates of present-day life should be increased and rural youth, who more often than not did not possess any formal academic training, should be afforded equal exposure,” said Ali. Apart from exposure, he added, the second thing YLC focuses on is young people’s confidence.

He said that 4,100 young people had attended the conference since its inception in 2002 and, to date, over 90 projects initiated by these motivated young folk were now functioning.

“At the end of the conference,” he said, “an inactive youth becomes active.”

Participants would interact and network with each other during the six-day moot under the guidance of leading personalities from all fields, including those from overseas.

The informative programmes will pivot around vital themes such as environment, inter-culturalism, international economies, social development, and political leadership.

Another member of team, Umair Jalianwala, dispelled the notion that the event was meant to cater just to the whim of the elite, asserting that people from lower middle class origins and rural localities were as much part of the YLC as anyone else.