The youth and our destiny 

 The survival of any nation solely depends on the capabilities of its youth to comprehend and cope with socio-economic conditions and challenges and take on the national responsibilities in accordance with the conditions of the time and aspirations of the people.
To prepare the youth, both males and females, in such a manner so that they can take on the national responsibilities in a befitting manner, it is imperative that they are trained and provided guidance in a right direction. This does not mean, however, that they are made to read some books on philosophy or politics or got admitted to and graduated from a college or institute. It is a continuous process of a national political struggle in which the youth groomed through the practices, experiences and observations of their elders and society at large.
Every nation sets some parameters for its youth through which they gain political maturity and experience and play their due role in nation building along side their seniors.
It is also need of the time that the youth of Gilgit-Baltistan are provided such opportunities through which they can get political maturity and comprehend their responsibilities as the future builders of the nation. However, it is unfortunate that so far the people of the region have failed to devise any strategy for political grooming of the youth. As such we consider it as our responsibility to point out some important issues regarding the youth of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Gilgit-Baltistan, despite having a physical existence at the dawn of the 21st century, still looks towards the international community and political forces to get its basic socio-political rights. Situated among the rugged mountains and glaciers in an isolated part of the world, Gilgit-Baltistan still remains deprived of all basic facilities of the modern world. Its inhabitants seem to be at the initial stages of political awareness because they have all along been kept away from modern education by the occupiers in order to achieve their own vested interests in the region. However, it is also a fact that some of the sons of the soil have also tried successfully to fill the vacuum by getting education from some other parts of the world.
It is time we set some parameters for our youth in order to get them prepared for launching a struggle to achieve the political, economic, social and constitutional rights which have been denied to our nation for the last many decades and which can never be made possible without the active participation of the youth in the national struggle.
For this, we have to set our destination. And what is our destination? Should we lose our national identity by becoming a tutelage state of someone else, or should it be a desire to become a separate nation among the comity of nations? It is a fact that Gilgit-Baltistan is the cradle of a rich civilization with a dynamic history and heritage. The people of the region not only meet the definition of a nation but had also had their own state for over a century. Therefore, we should first of all make the achievement of a separate and powerful state as our final goal. This state, a separate one, we had got and lost and in 1947 the United Nations promised the people their right to a separate state for which we should expedite our struggle.
The other thing we should do is on the academic front. Our youth should also be groomed through proper education so that they are prepared on academic, literary and political front to fight for their rights. Here our youth should also be made well aware of their past, their history, culture, traditions and heritage. They should also be educated about the devastating effects of the slogans being chanted for the last over six decades propagating about federation with a neighbor country. We should have to tell our youth on very scientific basis that the slavery and subjugation in which the nation has been living for the last over one century will be their destiny if they did not wake up from the slumber and work for their rights. As such, instead of being carried away by the slogans of federation, peaceful but organized struggle for the achievement of a separate state should be our mission.
The youth should also have to work very seriously in their respective field and change their routine political lethargy to political activism. Those who are working in any field, like economy, should have to work very hard and with full dedication to harness the resources of the region for the welfare of the local people. Students of politics and history should also have to explore their golden past and prepare the masses for the future. Those engaged in science subjects have to work for exploration of new avenues and exploitation of the God gifted resources of the region for the development of the region.
As the fate of the region has been decided by others for the last many decades, our people have drifted away from their actual objective and today the situation is such that we look towards others even for meeting our day to day needs. This is unfortunate when we look at our resources, both natural and human, and the socio-economic conditions of our people. Our enemies have kept us backward in order to prolong their rule in the region and if that was not enough, we stand divided today: divided on the basis of religion, sect, ethnicity and regionalism. Who pitted us against each other and who took the benefit of our mutual discord? This is time we understand the realities instead of playing as a tool at the hands of others.
Time is running out very quickly. If we did not correct ourselves today, our next generation would also remain in perpetual slavery, deprived of the basic rights and dependent on others. For a change in our life, therefore, it is impetrative that our youth are taught to understand their responsibilities as future builders of the nation. Indeed our youth have the power and capacity to make a change for the better.