LAHORE    -   Punjab Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Ma­lik Taimoor Masood presided over a meeting on Provincial Youth Coordination Mechanism here at National Hockey Stadium on Wednesday. He said Pakistan was a fortunate country for having around 63 per cent youth among its population. He said that 40,000 youth had been given entre­preneurship training under the e-Rozgar Pro­gram. “We are bringing more programs to give the youth maximum opportunities to excel in their re­spective skills and fields. “We are ready to extend every kind of cooperation and facilitation to PIL­DAT, Literacy, PITB, HEC and TEVTA Departments in their upcoming youth program,” he added. The sports minister said that Youth Affairs Depart­ment Punjab, in the collaboration with the PITB, was making efforts to make the e-Rozgar project a success. “Youth of Punjab province are being impart­ed technical skills in vari­ous relevant fields through e-Rozgar Program. Doz­ens of e-Rozgar Program centres are working right now in the province where thousands of youth are earning respectable liveli­hood for their families”. In his address, Director Gen­eral Sports Board Punjab Muhammad Tariq Qureshi said that it was right time to chalk out a comprehensive plan. “Our youth needs to be given technical education. It is a modern era and in this challenging time every youth must learn a skill along with his/her edu­cation,” he stressed. He further said that Youth Affairs Department Punjab is making all possible efforts to empower and mobilize our talented young generation. “The potential young male and female students of the province should take part in the maximum number of e-Rozgar Programme courses to make their future bright,” he added. Di­rector General Sports Board Punjab Muhammad Tariq Qureshi chaired the opening session of the meeting. Director General Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Sajid Latif, DG TEVTA, M Asad of UNFPA, Director Admin Syed Umair Has­san, Deputy Secretary Education Punjab Shahzad Jafri, Deputy Secretary HEC, DEO Literacy Depart­ment Ghulam Ahmed, Project Manager PILDAT Faheem Khan, Technical Consultant PILDAT Ms Amna Kausar and Maham Taj and Deputy Direc­tor Youth Affairs Nazish Noor also attended the meeting. The officials of PILDAT, PITB, Literacy Department and TEVTA gave a thorough pre­sentation and briefing regarding their initiatives and measures taken for the empowerment and development of youth. The officials of PILDAT, Literacy Department and TEVTA lauded useful projects of Youth Affairs Department Punjab par­ticularly NPSC E-Library. Highlighting initiatives of Youth Affairs Department Punjab, DG, SBP said that Youth Affairs Department Punjab is providing platform for sports development facilitation and promotion of talent. “It is work­ing comprehensively for youth empowerment, encouragement, entrepreneurship and develop­ment,” he elaborated.

Technical Consultant PILDAT Ms Amna Kausar in her briefing highlighted the significance of skills in this modern era. “We should make collective efforts for a better future for our youth at the platform of Youth Parliament. Besides this, we also need to enhance our coordination under the new sports policy. In foreign countries, every individual is bound to learn at least one skill as per his/her interest and passion and we need to introduce and launch this practice in our country properly,” she explained.

The officials of Literacy Department in their presentation said that effective measures are be­ing taken to make the transgender and inmates skilled and educated.