LONDON: More than 30,000 people gathered at a Pakistani sports stadium for the chance to join the Islamabad police force.
Aspiring male and female police officers showed up on Saturday at Jinnah Sports Stadium to take a written test in the hope of securing one of 1,167 positions.
A video, that went viral on social media, showed thousands of job applicants filling seats at Pakistan’s largest stadium, which is normally used for football.
In the clip, first shared on Twitter by Pakistani journalist Amjad Alam Khan, the reporter said the jobseekers, most of who were teenagers and young adults, had “not come to watch the match but to take the test for recruitment in Islamabad Police.”
یہ ہیں نوجوانان پاکستان جو میچ دیکھنے نہیں بلکہ اسلام آباد پولیس میں بھرتی کےلیے ٹیسٹ دینے آئے ہیں#pakistan #Islamabad pic.twitter.com/NZPymmMFMq
— Amjad Alam Khan (@amjadalamk) December 31, 2022
Other users reposted the footage highlighting the significance of the extraordinary turnout during an economic slump and high unemployment, particularly among young people, in the country.
1. Identify and establish value chain for the sectors which can accommodate the largest no of youth.
2. Educate, train and support financially to make them able to contribute to the sector. https://t.co/x5BDjsrWfx— Mountain Agro Xperts (@AgroXperts) January 1, 2023
According to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, more than 31 percent of the nation’s youth was unemployed, despite many having a professional degree.
The institute noted that a large proportion of the working-age population was not in the labor force because they were either discouraged from working or had other sources of income.
It added that despite the number of initiatives put in place to remove barriers preventing women from entering the labor market, the female participation rate remained extremely low.
