Youth Violence in PakistanPakistan is considered to be one of the most multi-cultural and polarized societies due to its geo-political position and participation in proxy wars and as a potentially fertile land for violent youth.Violence carried out by youths is all the more alarming because the country has one of the highest youth populations in the world. Pakistan has 36 million youths, aged 2024 years and 58 million below 15 years of age, which counts for 60% youth of the whole population. Among them, almost 70,000 children are on the streets, and about an equal number of them are off the streets, but are vulnerable to joining the violent youth in the near future due to ever-deteriorating socio-economic and political conditions in Pakistan.

In Peshawar, 62% of violent acts are committed by male youths between the ages 2039 years. Some reports indicate a higher level of violence of 74% among males between 2040 years of age in Karachi. A study portrays the situation as being even worse, where the victims were between ages 1645 years (in 77% incidents) that were reported in Rawalpindi hospitals.

Media reports indicate that the male suicide bombers in Pakistan were aged between 1624 years. They were trained by the extremist elements and indiscriminately used against the security forces.

Although Pakistan is one of the most strict, family-controlled societies, it shares a high level of different kinds of violence. Collective or group violence is common due to: Political Ethnic Religious and sectarian segregation.

The major originators for violence among youth are: Poverty Illiteracy Inequality Limited opportunities of positive, social interaction such as education, employment and sports.

Altogether, these factors lead towards the violent culture, not only among youths, but adults as well.

This violent culture generates a vicious cycle of problems that victimizes almost everyone in Pakistani society, either directly or indirectly. In particular, the youths become prone to accelerating the violence for the benet of the handlers sitting behind the scenes who control them through various means to meet their vested interests.Inter-related historical, political and cultural factors have created the culture of the violence in Pakistan.Many historical aspects also add to the list of factors that breed violence. The independence of the country itself is based on violent incidents. In 1947, refugees from the Indian part of the subcontinent experienced a great deal of violence.

Following independence in 1947, the liberation movement of Kashmir turned into Jihadi extremism in the 1980s. The interplay of Pakistans power elite, American neo-colonialism and the UNs inability to solve the Kashmir issue, even after many decades, have all fuelled the constant violence. The majority of the people brought up in the region were presented with violent extremism under the guise of the so-called noble cause of Jihad.

Three regular wars with India and on-going proxy wars between the two neighbors (India and Pakistan) have contributed to the violence.

Additionally, the cold war of the 1980s that was waged in the name of Jihad brought the Kalashnikov culture, drugs, maas and religious extremism to Pakistan and generated sectarian divisions within the country.

The youths were mobilized, motivated and trained by Pakistan, under the direction of the U.S.A, especially for the Jihad against the U.S.S.R. in the 1980s.

The trained soldiers were called Mujahedeen, the freedom ghters and the soldiers of Islam, ghting against the communist regimes in Afghanistan and in central Asia.

Nonetheless, the intentions of the Pak-U.S. proprietors of war made access to weapons so easy that one could nd these killing machines on almost every street corner near the border of Afghanistan.

Those youths of 1980s have now turned into arch enemies of Pakistan.

Those who misused the youth for political purposes could never realized that they were preparing a volcano of violence which would erupt some years later.

Pakistan has seen 4 martial laws after its creation. Democracy was not allowed to flourish. Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, once said Military dictatorship is born from the power of the gun, and so it under-mines the concept of the rule of law and gives birth to a culture of might, a culture of weapons, violence and intolerance.

Recently, the war on terror fuelled the current wave of intolerant and extremist behavior in Pakistan. As a result, around 15 million internally-displaced refugees who fled their native homelands of Swat, Waziristan, Khyber, Bajaur due to Talibanization and subsequent military operations added to the miseries of the people and this is going to leave a mark on their mentality for the rest of their lives.

On the other hand, a shortage of educational institutions and widespread poverty bring the remaining youth and children on the street or off the street to earn money for their families. In urban localities, the majority of these children become beggars while earning or searching for employment in a labour market that is not youth-friendly. Poor labour-market conditions put the youth into the hands of the maa. These maas utilize the youth for their own benet through different ways. The maas use them as child-soldiers, drug trafckers for other related violent crimes. They became the nursery for militancy, depending upon the given social conditions and the specic region. As a result, sizeable portions of the youth became part of youth gangs or part of the extremist forces.In domestic political affairs, some of the political, ethnic and sectarian parties have a militant wing in Pakistan due to the culture of intolerance which was promoted in the 1980s under the auspices of western allies. They recruit youth at the college/ university level and during or after their pursuit of higher education; this youth becomes part of the youth wing of these parties and are perceived as assets for the parties. These political parties provide weapons, money and a relatively comfortable life to these youth wings in order to safeguard their vested interests within the political power structures. These parties enhance their social and economic status through such youth groups.A new trend is emerging in which some of the political and ethnic parties are using the youth in order to obtain bhatah for their party.Levels of violence in Pakistan differ across regions and social classes. Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta have high levels of violence in urban localities among street youths. Peshawar is ranked highest in Pakistan and second in the World in terms of violence. However, Lahore has a low level of violence amongst the metropolitan areas of Pakistan. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is the most violent region. One major reason for this is that weapons and rearms are openly available to anybody in this region.Our culture has adopted these negative items. An individual especially a male learns about violent behavior in the early days of his life. Soon after the birth of a child, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the birth is celebrated by ring in the air. When a little older, a child is trained in how to use a weapon in order to protect family and personal honor. All of us must know this that, there is no honor in killing.It could be argued that the historical and socio-political factors generate the societal norms and values that are responsible for the protection, promotion and acceleration of youth violence in Pakistan. The major norms that enhance violence are as following: Social Norms: Honor (Ghairat), Respect (Izat) and Family (Khandani Riwayaat). Political Norms: Power, Authority, Instrumental Violence. Cultural Norms: The VIP Culture & the Firing of Weapons at a Childs Birth. Economic Norms: Land, Money, Resources and Poverty.

The youth learn from their elders and they maintain the enmity throughout their lives and then pass it on to the next generation. This is due to illiteracy. We have seen the educated ones; they have shelved that life, have gotten away from these enmities and living a comfortable life.Islam, in principle, prohibits violenceespecially towards women and children. The Quran forbids violence in these words: Whoever kills another person is as if he killed the whole humanity (human race).To end violence, we need to get to the root of the problem. And the problem is the lack of happiness. Violence springs up when people are frustrated, angry, and feel betrayed and abused themselves.Change the anger into happiness, and the violence dies out ... Bring an end to the emotions and behaviors that give rise to violence.Feudalism, the political elite, the clergy, the bureaucratic structures, drug maas who have authority, treat ordinary citizens badly, mend the laws according to their need, exploitation by the government, constant lies, unemployment and less opportunities- These are some of the factors that make the youth violent, frustrated and angry.Remove the abuse, the inequality and the family prospers. When families prosper, so do communities and regions.Mahatma Gandhi once said, Economies and communities alike are pulled down by violence ... from those in power, as well as those without power, over their own lives they reach out to destroy others. Make the people feel valuable and equal before the law and you bring out prosperity and happiness.People who lack power over their own lives, the power to make their life better ... or the life their children will have ... often turn to violence when there is no other option.The challenge is to make the idle youth occupied. For when they are busy with their jobs and education, they would have little time to plot revolutions or crimes. Parents would not endanger the bright future ahead for themselves and their children.When every hope is lost, people give up ... and some turn to the only thing that will change things ... waking other people up or working actively on their own destruction.The critical task is to renew hope and revive it with action ... action that changes things, that lets light start peeping under the door. The opening of doors, to let more hope in and show the way to ... a brighter day, a better future, an opportunity to transform things in a meaningful way. The challenge is overcoming years of neglect, hopelessness, thoughtlessness, depression and the inertia of having given up .. these challenges can only be coped with investment in education and creation of employment opportunities to provide them a hope of a better future ahead.Human violence is a manmade problem, and only mankind can solve it and the easiest way is to provide the people hope of a wonderful future that lays ahead.