Dr. Faheem Jehangir Khan, Senior Research Economist at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, estimates that 67 percent of the youth in Pakistan want to leave their country.
In his remarks at the two-day EconFest festival, Khan reportedly also brought up the fact that 31% of Pakistan’s educated youth are unemployed.
The economist stressed the need to discuss issues of youngsters to find solutions. He said that there are more than 200 universities in the country that are giving degrees to thousands of students but a degree is not a guarantee of employment.
Khan said that there is a responsibility on teachers but the students should also turn to entrepreneurship.
It is pertinent to mention here that a previous PIDE survey found that the desire to leave Pakistan was most prominent in young people, aged 15 to 24 of whom at least 67% of the Youth in Pakistan want to leave their country.
Read Youth Loan Scheme relaunched with interest-free microloans
The survey put economic reasons as the most prevalent for leaving the country. The next two significant motivations were the pursuit of equal opportunity and more respect.
The EconFest has been organized by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) for debates and discussions on the economy of the country and related sectors.
Pakistan’s estimated population (excluding the disputed areas of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan) was 207,774,520 according to the provisional results of the 2017 Census of Pakistan. Pakistan is the world’s fifth-most-populous country.
