This is apropos a letter to the Editor from this writer titled “Save our youth, save our future” carried by the newspaper yesterday.
Meanwhile, young people have few healthy outlets for their energy. The city lacks adequate playgrounds, stadiums, libraries and public parks. Encroached roads, neglected streets and unhygienic surroundings further diminish the quality of urban life. No place to gather but the overcrowded tea stalls and restaurants where hours and dreams dissolve together.
Even stepping outside can be frightening, as motorcycle snatchers and criminals roam freely and the law seems too far away.
This is what hopelessness looks like: a generation encouraged to dream but denied the opportunities and support needed to build a future. When pain finds no outlet, no listener and no future, some young people begin to believe that nothing will ever change. They are wrong. We must prove otherwise. Each of these deaths was preventable. Each was a life with a name and a mother’s hope behind it.
The state must act as a mother, not a distant observer. It must build sports grounds, libraries youth centres and safe places to gather. Create jobs, skill programmes and pathways to livelihood.
The authorities must decisively dismantle gambling dens, curb drug supplies and eliminate the akra perchi trade. The grip of illegal moneylenders must be broken, while fair and affordable credit should be made accessible so that no young person is driven into the clutches of usurers.
Accessible counselling and mental-health services are also essential.
What is happening in Shikarpur reflects a wider challenge confronting cities across Pakistan.
Our youth are not a burden; they are our greatest asset and the custodians of our future. Their loss must not become another forgotten statistic. A society that abandons its young endangers its own tomorrow. Let us give them dignity, opportunities, support, and hope while there is still time.
Qamer Soomro, Shikarpur
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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