Around 63 percent of Pakistan comprises of youth aged between 15 and 33 (UN Population Fund Report 2017). With these daunting numbers comes great challenges.Pakistan is currently a developing country who is facing both social and economic problems. Youth definition varies from country to country.

Pakistan now has more young people than it has ever had, and this is forecasted to continue to increase until at least 2050.

Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan has emphasised on the importance of youth and their contribution in changing the current situation of Pakistan and securing a better future for the coming generations. A productive youth results in a great boost to the economic structure of a country.

At this time, Pakistan’s youth is working hard to change the political, social and economic situations of Pakistan through different means. According to the Pakistan Human Development Report team 2017, “Never have the opportunities for social, economic and political progress been so great. Nor have the challenges facing us ever been more pressing. As in many countries, but more than in most, Pakistan faces an important opportunity – indeed, a responsibility – to place its young at the very centre of its development priorities.”

When talking about change being enacted, let's look at one of the most influential non-profits working in Pakistan called Aagah Pakistan!

In a country faced with numerous legal injustices, perhaps the biggest hurdle to bring about equality of law is the lack of legal awareness of one’s rights. Realizing this, a Lahore-based student-led organization – Aagah Pakistan – took it upon themselves to work towards bringing legal awareness in their society. The following helps one get a better understanding of to what extent the youth of Pakistan is working and what motivates them through this process. When asked about their ideas, their process of setting up an organisation and challenges they faced, their responses were the following.

What was the initial idea behind the organisation?

“The idea behind Aagah Pakistan arose when we realized that in Pakistan when people are subjugated to criminal offences and wrongdoings, a general feeling that arises within them is that the system does not back them. However, when you read the Pakistan Penal Code and the Constitution of Pakistan, you realize that it is one of the most detailed in the world; hence, we came to the realization that; the problem arises when people do not realize that there are actual laws that back their demands. Henceforth, the idea of making an awareness based organization that educates people upon their rights as per the constitution of Pakistan was born.”

Why do we think legal awareness is so absent in our country?

“Whenever a social injustice takes place in our country, the masses utter only one sentence, ‘We have no rights in a country like Pakistan.’ Our people’s trust for justice has fallen primarily due to; vigilante culture, spread of misconceptions regarding the law, stigmas of our system being influenced by capitalism, corruption and bias and mostly importantly, because the people who make the system, instead of courting the law, are now contributing to its inefficiency. Hence, our community has resorted to obtaining justice themselves and labelling their personal morals as the basis of right and wrong.”

What challenges did you face while developing this initiative?

“Many believe that spreading awareness regarding important issues such as; Violent Religious Extremism, Female Discrimination, Infanticide and Genocide, Sexual Harassment and many more topics which lay the basic outline of human rights, is pertinent. Others disagree, mainly due to the radicalization our community has been socialized into. They argue that our work is responsible for spreading unrest in our society since we state facts that demoralize the internalized, intolerant beliefs of the masses. Due to this we had to develop a mutual ground between us and the community on which we could address these social issues while respecting the boundaries of our audience. One of the main challenges that we did, and still, face is; taking a stand for factual morals and awareness in the face of decade long misconceptions and beliefs regarding the Constitution of our country.”

What do you want to achieve with Aagah Pakistan?

“We are optimistic about the future. Young people are slowly becoming more vocal about their opinions and realizing the power of what is right and what is wrong under the basis of the law. The more the youth becomes aware of the rights that were bestowed upon them at birth, the stronger the impact of the laws and constitutional rights will be. Since our organization aims to educate the people of Pakistan about their rights as per the Constitution, we hope to build a foundation of strong civic qualities and trust in the national system for obtaining justice. What's distressing is that majority of the time, victims such as those of sexual harassment, racism, ethnic and religious discrimination, blue collar crime, child laborers and many more, do not even know that their rights are being violated. We wish to use this platform to bring about a safer and peaceful Pakistan where everyone is aware of their standing as a citizen and an individual.”

-Isa Iqbal, Ahsan Javed, Saad Atif, Mahir Hassan (students and founders of Aagah Pakistan)

Many such organisations are working towards a flourishing Pakistan. What’s unique about this situation is that for the first time we can see the youth working tirelessly and doing what was never done before.