Mashhood believes youth can do ‘magic’

[Dubious]

Can young entrepreneurs transform Pakistan into a high-tech powerhouse?
May 25, 2015 at 6:30 PM EDT

After attending college in the U.S., Pakistani-born tech entrepreneur Umair Aziz returned to his home country to start one of Asia’s fastest-growing startups. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Karachi on how some are hoping to tap the labor potential of the country’s young population.


TRANSCRIPT

JUDY WOODRUFF: Tonight, we begin a series of reports from Pakistan, a nation that’s been gripped for years by political instability, sectarian violence, natural disasters, and poverty.

The country is also home to one of the world’s largest populations of young people.

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro met with some innovators in the capital, Karachi, who are hoping that generation will fuel Pakistan’s rise to becoming a high-tech powerhouse.

The story is part of our Agents for Change series.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It’s one of Asia’s fastest growing tech start-up companies. This team of Web site developers is on a project for Coca-Cola.

UMAIR AZIZ, Tech Entrepreneur: So, this is going to go up in 27, 28 different markets.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Umair Aziz, the founder, can name-drop other blue-chip American clients.

UMAIR AZIZ: Sears. We have worked with Amazon in the past. We have worked with Microsoft. We worked with Intel.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: One secret to his success — actually, it’s pretty much a secret, period — is where this company, called Creative Chaos, is located, Karachi, the teeming and indeed chaotic commercial capital of Pakistan, a country beset by terrorist violence and political instability, a city that ranks as one of the world’s most violent.

UMAIR AZIZ: We don’t want to be out of the race by advertising that we’re based in Pakistan. There’s a very negative stigma associated with the country.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: So, prospective customers see nothing on Creative Chaos’ Web site about its location. Technically, it’s headquartered in San Francisco. They soon learn that almost all workers are in Pakistan. Once hired, Aziz says, his company has never been removed from a job.

UMAIR AZIZ: People in the U.S. really don’t know that there’s a world outside of Talibans, and there’s a world outside of, you know, everything that they hear on CNN and BBC all the time.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It’s in that world that Aziz carved out a profitable niche. Back in 2000, he was fresh out of college in Ohio and working for a Boston tech firm when he decided to return to his native Karachi.

UMAIR AZIZ: I knew there were hundreds and thousands of people like me who could join, you know, my organization. It was a risk, but I was betting on the talent. I was betting on people just like me.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: His is one of a handful of thriving Pakistani start-ups, designing Web sites, databases and applications for global clients. The tech sector is seeing a healthy 35 percent annual growth and Aziz expects his firm to grow fivefold by 2020.

In raw numbers, though, that talent pool could be a lot larger, says Jehan Ara, herself a tech entrepreneur.

JEHAN ARA, President, The Nest: The country is about 200 million people, and 70 percent of them below the age of 30. So it’s a very young population. So, the potential is amazing. How to channel that potential is something that we are all sort of thinking about.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Ara is leading an effort to scout that talent, trying to create what the technology business calls an ecosystem to foster creativity and new business.

This is The Nest. It’s one of a handful of so-called incubators that have been built in Pakistan. Here, 13 teams of techies chosen from more than a hundred applicants are working on what a panel of judges decided were promising business ideas.

JEHAN ARA: We are looking for young people who’ve developed a minimum viable product themselves while at home or at university and we know that they are committed to doing this. And then, once they get here, then we can help them further.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For Pakistan, this is a rare work environment, and not just because it’s offered for free to these would-be tech titans. They have reliable power, broadband and hardware many could not afford on their own, plus a connection to global resources from donors to the facility, including Google and Samsung.

The U.S. government also financially supports The Nest. They practice their pitches in speed dating sessions, a classic Silicon Valley approach to lure investors. And they subject each other to sometimes withering critiques. This argument was about the Web site of a start-up by 23-year-old Shoaib Iqbaugh. It’s a kind of local Angie’s List that provides certified workers vetted not just by background checks, critical in this crime-ridden city.

RUMAISA MUGHAL, Tech Entrepreneur: But it’s so cluttered.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: What would you like to see in it, specifically?

RUMAISA MUGHAL: Less clutter and, as we talked about, their brand personality. If their best brand is so mess up, their — probably the organization is also messed up, right?

MAN: I think that she is right in many ways, but I would disagree, with due respect, on many points.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Rumaisa Mughal has her own start-up, a design business called Artboard. Her presence in this mix is also significant.

RUMAISA MUGHAL: I.T. and the new economy are certainly opening doors for a woman. However, the progress, sadly, is slow, but definitely more women are coming in this field.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: While The Nest has attracted some investment from abroad, Ara says Pakistan’s own business community has been slower to provide the venture capital that’s fueled so much of the information tech business globally.

JEHAN ARA: It’s only when the local investors get really interested that the industry is going to take off, the start-up culture is going to take off.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: One big worry is Pakistan’s precarious security situation, which she fears could drive many entrepreneurs to take off, but for jobs abroad.

In fact, we had interviewed Sabeen Mahmud for this story. She was social activist and one-time tech entrepreneur who ran a performance space for the arts and sometimes controversial political debates. Days later, she was assassinated by gunmen who have yet to be identified.

For the PBS NewsHour, this is Fred de Sam Lazaro in Karachi, Pakistan.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You can see Fred’s next story from Pakistan later this week. Fred’s reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.

 

[IrbiS]

Democratize Pakistan’s Youth
Most of Pakistan's population is under 29. Pakistan needs to engage them in the democratic process through student government associations in colleges.

• BY ATHAR JAVAID, ANAM ABDULLA, DAVID SILVERMAN
• MAY 13, 2015

In 1980, Pakistan reached a demographic milestone; adults constituted 52 percent of the total population. Since then, a demographic transition has taken place. Now 110 million of Pakistan’s 180 million citizens are 29 years old or younger, and 50 million are between the ages of 15 and 29. This “demographic dividend” is expected to last until 2045, after which the average age will increase rapidly. Before this demographic transition comes to pass, it is critical that Pakistani youth are mobilized in productive ways, gainfully employed, and politically enfranchised. Otherwise, the future of Pakistan may well be defined by political, economic, and social tumult.

Thankfully, the current demographic landscape could portend a brighter future for Pakistan. One recent study stated that a substantial majority of Pakistani youth believe that they will have a role in changing the country for the better. (They are also better educated than their parents; the same study cited statistics that showed the most educated person in 50 percent of all Pakistani households is now below the age of 30.) In fact, the significant rate of youth participation — 63 percent — in the 2013 national elections demonstrates that young Pakistanis channel their concerns for Pakistan’s future in a democratic way and seek to participate in the country’s political discourse.

However, concerns for the future of Pakistani democracy persist. The country’s largest demographic is disillusioned and pessimistic — 94 percent of Pakistani youth thought the nation was on the wrong path — and only a small proportion of them have confidence in national or local governments, the courts, or the police. A survey of Pakistan’s 18-29 year olds conducted before the May 2013 elections revealed that only 29 percent saw democracy as a model system of governance; 32 percent favored military rule; and 38 percent believed the best option was a system of Islamic Sharia.

This disillusionment could be the result of various elements, such as the government’s inability to ensure universal civil liberties and provide basic services. Pakistan was rated 5 on the Freedom House Civil Liberties Index in 2015, on a scale of 1 to 7, where 7 is considered the worst. Basic services are also lacking; 40 percent of Pakistan’s population suffers from malnutrition,energy shortages prevail throughout the country and violence against minorities has witnessed an alarming increase. The lack of a seasoned democratic political process has added to this disillusionment, since until the 2013 elections, no civilian government had been able to transfer power to another civilian government successfully. However, it is the weakness of the country’s educational system that is the greatest threat to the survival of Pakistani democracy.

For the 71 percent of youth who have obtained some sort of formal education, there has been little reinforcement of democratic ideals. Arshed Bhatti, a noted development practitioner, put it succinctly: “Our educational system is actually anti-democratic and does not promote the democratic system.” In his view, instead of creating class harmony, the educational system reinforces class divisions and biases through Pakistan’s conflicting methods of education (i.e., private, public, and madrassa). Moreover, journalist Zubeida Mustafa believes that “the other very important role of education is to develop the capacity to think on a collective level, which unfortunately is lacking [in Pakistan].”

A 2010 study conducted by educator Muhammad Nazir, explored the potential for democratic changes in Pakistan’s educational practices by surveying public and private school teachers from urban and rural areas of Baluchistan and Sindh provinces. He found that educational practices in Pakistan are authoritarian and bureaucratic in action and that collaboration and reflection do not play a part in the teacher’s decision-making processes across schools. In fact, he noted that teachers across both public and private schools were not comfortable with the idea of educational change through participatory or democratic approaches.

These perspectives demonstrate the lack of forums in schools and universities for the promotion of democratic ideals, values, or frameworks, which are critical if the demographic distribution is to pay a dividend and not incur a deficit.

Many writers have written about what a school with democratic values should look like, and according to international education professor Lynn Davies, “basic political education for students is not enough; democratizing the actual forms and organization of schooling itself is required.” Davies rightly proposed that individual schools should also look within their own environments to ensure that cultural and local factors are incorporated while creating management systems based on democratic principles.

Coupling the current state of the education system with the youth’s pessimism regarding Pakistan’s trajectory, there is a clear need to provide a platform for students to organize and learn about the democratic process within their educational institutions. The establishment of Student Government Associations (SGA) within schools and universities is one way to achieve this.

By providing students with a form of representation and a pluralistic environment for leadership development, SGAs will encourage civic engagement and participation in democratic processes. To ensure that these associations accord with local and cultural factors, as Davies suggested, SGAs can be designed to emulate the structure of the National Central Government, consisting of executive, legislative and judicial branches. Just like the actual electoral process, the SGAs can also have election committees that facilitate fair and legitimate polls, remind students about their civic duties, such as voting, and provide information on student candidates.

The provision of a platform for students to become involved in an apolitical and mock democratic process will not only improve their educational experiences but will also give them an opportunity to learn first-hand about the importance of pluralistic and democratic organizational systems. The creation of SGAs can be the first step in achieving a grassroots solution that mitigates youth disillusionment and supports democratic processes. Over a longer horizon, SGAs will provide leadership development and organizational training, fostering a future generation of selfless leaders — a political class that Pakistan sorely needs, supported by an electorate that the world cannot afford to ignore.


Democratize Pakistan’s Youth | Foreign Policy

Good points but I have no idea what these studies are and how they took samples from Baluchistan and Sindh and concluded that it is the whole of Pakistan is absurd!

Very energizing

Our generation is a lot more open, adaptive etc than our parents and we should be put to work before next complete phonaholics' generation grows up. Because if current gen. isn't given charge immediately it'll rot and so will the next one automatically. So, current karta dhartas gotta cut some slack for youth with open heart.

 

[WaLeEdK2]

Anyone can do real magic. All you need to do is come into contact with jinn and they'll do what comes naturally to them which we call supernatural and magic.

 

[qamar1990]

@Armstrong @Magnet @Jungibaaz @S.U.R.B. @Horus @Leader @Jazzbot @IBRIS @Emmie @WAJsal @TankMan @waz @MastanKhan @dexter @HRK @Wolfhound @Umair Nawaz @qamar1990 @WebMaster @Spy Master @S.Y.A @p(-)0ENiX @Slav Defence @slapshot @Secur @Side-Winder @rockstar08 @RescueRanger @Taygibay @Malik Abdullah @PWFI @Pboy @Pukhtoon @Spring Onion @Pboy @liontk @Pakistanisage @ZYXW @Marshmallow @Patriots @Pakistani shaheens @Pak47 @Muhammad Omar @Men in Green @Manticore @LoveIcon @Luftwaffe @krash @KingMamba @JonAsad @Imran Khan @Jango @Indus Falcon @Hyperion @Gunsnroses @Gufi @ghazi52 @farhan_9909 @farhanalee7 @Emmie @EAK @Durrak @DRaisinHerald @DiehardPakNerd @Dr. Stranglove @Atanz @Devil Soul @Developereo @Desert Fox @AUz @Icewolf @Darth Vader @Crypto @DESERT FIGHTER @cb4 @Bratva @BATMAN @batmannow @balixd @B06 @Azad-Kashmiri @AZADPAKISTAN2009 @Areesh @air marshal @Al Bhatti @Aether @A.Rafay @قناص

I dont know how many of you are youth and how many babay...But whatever ;)

pakistani youth motivational songs compiliation | Tune.pk

im a youth.

 

[Dubious]

im a youth.

Magic ker

 

[qamar1990]

Magic ker

 

[Muhammad Omar]

Youth is already divided under the parties flags...

youth fights for their leaders

youth is getting towards terrorism like electrical Engineer involved in killing 45 people .....

well even my class is divided in 3 groups 1 which is with PTI 1 which is basically Pashtoons supporting ANP and 1 which is with PML N

everyone criticize each other for something everyday like today Many were criticizing ANP for CPEC although everything got sorted out between party leaders but not between youth many give taunt of Kalabagh Dam to ANP supporters

Even you saw how they start firing at each other in KPK local body election... It's is the leaders who can do magic not to separate youth under their flags

 

[Dubious]

Youth is already divided under the parties flags...

youth fights for their leaders

youth is getting towards terrorism like electrical Engineer involved in killing 45 people .....

well even my class is divided in 3 groups 1 which is with PTI 1 which is basically Pashtoons supporting ANP and 1 which is with PML N

everyone criticize each other for something everyday like today Many were criticizing ANP for CPEC although everything got sorted out between party leaders but not between youth many give taunt of Kalabagh Dam to ANP supporters

Even you saw how they start firing at each other in KPK local body election... It's is the leaders who can do magic not to separate youth under their flags

Its the youth not the sheep

 

[Taygibay]

@Akheilos
I'm a babay/baba and my kid is almost fully grown, milady.
But one of those links was so excellent if heart wrenching that I posted it on my blog and thanked you for it.
Which I now do here again since I can't access your profile page.

Respects, Tay.

 

[Dubious]

@Akheilos
I'm a babay/baba and my kid is almost fully grown, milady.
But one of those links was so excellent if heart wrenching that I posted it on my blog and thanked you for it.
Which I now do here again since I can't access your profile page.

Respects, Tay.

You are most welcome..I put here what I find amusing and in the hope people would pick it up and build on it. After all what is the purpose of the some of the threads I open

 

[Taygibay]

Well, the piece I used was not really amusing but it was essential.
I hope I built on it properly. Plus, you're now "famous", sort of.

Good evening, Tay.

 

[Dubious]

Well, the piece I used was not really amusing but it was essential.
I hope I built on it properly. Plus, you're now "famous", sort of.

Good evening, Tay.

Very interesting piece!

I liked the big bro and apprentice idea

As for the Shark Tank...I didnt understand what you suggested and I didnt like the idea of Survivor esp this part " the rest are absorbed by their bigger neighbours"

But the whole concept esp the Big Bro and Apprentice is new and awesome!! Though I am not sure how I helped....

Most of my posts are either thought provoking or they are to start the engine in the brain to start thinking in terms of creativity - something different from ratta

 

[Force-India]

Pakistani youth are most forward thinking and intelligent people in the sub continent

 

[Taygibay]

Though I am not sure how I helped....

The video I posted in the piece was what came out of one of your links?

I didnt understand what you suggested and I didnt like the idea of Survivor esp this part " the rest are absorbed by their bigger neighbours"

The Shark Tank is : convince them that to feed you is a good investment. And none of these , not
only Survivor, was supposed to be morally bearable so it's more than OK that you didn't like it, girl!

Categories are important on my blog ; this one is not tagged humour …
because it is not, it's sarcasm at the way we treat each other. No joke!

Have a great day, Tay.

 

[Dubious]

The video I posted in the piece was what came out of one of your links?

I just watched the video (So you think you can stay)...Did I put that up somewhere?

I found it sad...that people who are nervous wont be able to get asylum just because they couldnt convince a group of jury? The jury's decision is made based on what they are capable of feeling and how much they have been exposed to something similar and can relate....I mean a guy who can fake or is good at acting would get a yes without problems while a true desperate person will be sent back to face his sad faith ...that is sad

But I understand, it is an interesting concept as long as it is not the final say and just a plea like thing or 1 of the steps in the decisions but not the final decision making step!