NINETY-FOUR per cent of youth had no access to a library, 93pc to a sports facility, and 78pc to a park. Ninety-seven per cent had never been to a live music event, 94pc to a sports event, and 97pc to the cinema. A whopping 71pc had no access to any of the above. These figures are from a survey conducted for UNDP’s Pakistan National Human Development Report 2017: Unleashing the potential of a young Pakistan, of which Dr Adil Najam and I were the lead authors. It was a national survey that highlighted a youth population with few opportunities for positive engagement outside their home. Since 2017, the economy has not been doing well. We have not had any significant positive changes in national human development outcomes, and the impact of Covid and global slowdown has hardly been encouraging. So, one would expect that since conditions have not changed much, a similar survey carried out today would show numbers that are not very different from those reported then. I have been staying in London for the last couple of months. There is a large park about 400 metres away from our place. The park is managed by the local council (local government). It has a walking/ jogging track running along its almost kilometre-long perimeter. The park has two multipurpose fields. I saw them being used as cricket fields in August and they were converted into football and rugby fields in September. There are three hard-surface tennis courts on one side. There is a children’s play area with lots of structures to climb, swing from, and slide on. The play area is full most evenings. The park is utilised well. Hundreds of children, parents, and dogs visit it every day. Walkers, dog-walkers — most of whom pick up their pet’s poop themselves — and joggers are there round the clock. The tennis courts, play area, and fields get busy in the afternoon after school on weekdays. They are occupied throughout the day on weekends. Every afternoon, four to five groups of young people, with their coaches, have training sessions in the park. There are always cricket or football matches going on. On weekends, quite a few groups have picnics there too. The park is, of course, open to all. We have not had any significant positive changes in national human development outcomes. It would not be an overstatement to say that the park defines the neighbourhood and its vibe. It is a very family-oriented area and one sees that parents are comfortable allowing their young children to run around the park or ride their bike or scooters around the jogging track — often unsupervised. A lot of credit for this goes to the local council. The park does require significant upkeep for cleaning and maintaining the track, trees and plants, and the grassy fields. But, since residents can benefit from healthy activities, the council provides the needed services quite diligently. Walking down our area’s high street takes us to the local public library, which is also run by the local council. Since we are a family of readers, and buying books is not cheap, we went in to check if we could be members of the local library. All it took was proof of residence in the area to obtain membership cards free of cost. We then had access to not just the local library but all public libraries around the council (six, I think). One person can borrow up to 20 books at a time for up to three weeks. If a book is not available at our library, we can request it from other libraries in the network that have it. Over the last two weeks, my daughter has read six to seven books. Imagine the saving! And she has had fun learning and managing her own library membership card as well as the activity of borrowing and returning books. I am a little worried that the speed at which she is going, she might not have much left to read at the library in a month or two! Providing access to books is just a small part of the services on offer. The library has very inviting spaces for sitting and reading, and even desks for writing. It has free Wi-Fi and free access to internet-connected desktops for members. It also has at-cost facilities for printing and photocopying, and a decently priced cafeteria. There are also some rooms and spaces that can be booked for group activities. I have seen language-learning, meditation, and book-discussion clubs using these spaces. It has been a bit of a surprise to see a broad cross-section of society using these facilities. The book section for the young is always bustling. And from teenagers to retirees, all age groups are well represented throughout the day at the library. The local council provides all these public spaces. Local accountability for local issues seems to work well here. It is difficult to list all the benefits that accrue to the citizens from these two spaces and the free services that come with them. There are opportunities for physical, mental, and emotional engagement through group activities, social interaction, reading and learning, and hobbies and interests. It is important for all people to have such opportunities for these healthy activities, so that they can interact positively and learn to work together, and, generally, become engaged citizens. The contrast between where we need to be and the findings of the survey of Pakistani youth mentioned earlier could not be starker. The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives and an associate professor of economics at Lums. Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2026
Public good and spaces
NINETY-FOUR per cent of youth had no access to a library, 93pc to a sports facility, and 78pc to a park. Ninety-seven per cent had never been to a live music event, 94pc to a sports event, and 97pc to the cinema. A whopping 71pc had no access to any of the above. These figures are from a survey conducted for UNDP’s Pakistan National Human Development Report 2017: Unleashing the potential of a young Pakistan, of which Dr Adil Najam and I were the lead authors. It was a national survey that highlighted a youth population with few opportunities for positive engagement outside their home. Since 2017, the economy has not been doing well. We have not had any significant positive changes in national human development outcomes, and the impact of Covid and global slowdown has hardly been encouraging. So, one would expect that since conditions have not changed much, a similar survey carried out today would show numbers that are not very different from those reported then. I have been staying in London for the last couple of months. There is a large park about 400 metres away from our place. The park is managed by the local council (local government). It has a walking/ jogging track running along its almost kilometre-long perimeter. The park has two multipurpose fields. I saw them being used as cricket fields in August and they were converted into football and rugby fields in September. There are three hard-surface tennis courts on one side. There is a children’s play area with lots of structures to climb, swing from, and slide on. The play area is full most evenings. The park is utilised well. Hundreds of children, parents, and dogs visit it every day. Walkers, dog-walkers — most of whom pick up their pet’s poop themselves — and joggers are there round the clock. The tennis courts, play area, and fields get busy in the afternoon after school on weekdays. They are occupied throughout the day on weekends. Every afternoon, four to five groups of young people, with their coaches, have training sessions in the park. There are always cricket or football matches going on. On weekends, quite a few groups have picnics there too. The park is, of course, open to all. We have not had any significant positive changes in national human development outcomes. It would not be an overstatement to say that the park defines the neighbourhood and its vibe. It is a very family-oriented area and one sees that parents are comfortable allowing their young children to run around the park or ride their bike or scooters around the jogging track — often unsupervised. A lot of credit for this goes to the local council. The park does require significant upkeep for cleaning and maintaining the track, trees and plants, and the grassy fields. But, since residents can benefit from healthy activities, the council provides the needed services quite diligently. Walking down our area’s high street takes us to the local public library, which is also run by the local council. Since we are a family of readers, and buying books is not cheap, we went in to check if we could be members of the local library. All it took was proof of residence in the area to obtain membership cards free of cost. We then had access to not just the local library but all public libraries around the council (six, I think). One person can borrow up to 20 books at a time for up to three weeks. If a book is not available at our library, we can request it from other libraries in the network that have it. Over the last two weeks, my daughter has read six to seven books. Imagine the saving! And she has had fun learning and managing her own library membership card as well as the activity of borrowing and returning books. I am a little worried that the speed at which she is going, she might not have much left to read at the library in a month or two! Providing access to books is just a small part of the services on offer. The library has very inviting spaces for sitting and reading, and even desks for writing. It has free Wi-Fi and free access to internet-connected desktops for members. It also has at-cost facilities for printing and photocopying, and a decently priced cafeteria. There are also some rooms and spaces that can be booked for group activities. I have seen language-learning, meditation, and book-discussion clubs using these spaces. It has been a bit of a surprise to see a broad cross-section of society using these facilities. The book section for the young is always bustling. And from teenagers to retirees, all age groups are well represented throughout the day at the library. The local council provides all these public spaces. Local accountability for local issues seems to work well here. It is difficult to list all the benefits that accrue to the citizens from these two spaces and the free services that come with them. There are opportunities for physical, mental, and emotional engagement through group activities, social interaction, reading and learning, and hobbies and interests. It is important for all people to have such opportunities for these healthy activities, so that they can interact positively and learn to work together, and, generally, become engaged citizens. The contrast between where we need to be and the findings of the survey of Pakistani youth mentioned earlier could not be starker. The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives and an associate professor of economics at Lums. Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2026