American Pakistani Public Affairs Committee holds youth conference in Albertson

Nearly 100 attendees gathered in Albertson on Sunday for the first youth conference hosted by the American Pakistani Public Affairs Committee's New York chapter since the pandemic, and the first organized by APPAC youth groups themselves.

The APPAC Junior Youth Wing, which is headed by a president who is just 16, was founded this spring to foster involvement and represent the interests of Pakistani Americans aged 16 to 27, along with the APPAC Youth Professional Wing, which represents those aged 28 through 35.

APPAC aims to create resources for marginalized groups in the United States and support Pakistani and Muslim Americans entering politics. The organization's primary focus, according to its website, is on "building resources, creating policies and fighting for legislation that is beneficial to not only the Pakistani American community but all communities."

The junior board, besides working on Sunday's event, has worked to establish a presence on social media and in What's App groups, and, in a similar vein, one of the programs run by the Youth Professional Wing are monthly meetups to facilitate networking. 

“Our whole board was of the idea that the youth should be involved in APPAC going forward because they’re the future of our society,” said Dr. Sadia Tahir, chief organizer of the youth groups and a vice president of the New York chapter. “We stand with all minorities’ rights against hate, injustice and inequality. This is the principle APPAC was founded on. And we want our younger generation [to understand] that not only do they have to be very law-abiding and excellent citizens, but they have to safeguard their rights.”

APPAC was founded in 2017, prompted by frustration with a growing national rhetoric of “injustice, hate and inequality,” said Tahir, who is also a member of the national APPAC board.

The aim was to “establish an organization to fight against injustice, inequality, bigotry, and try to safeguard the rights of minorities — not only Pakistani Americans, but we stand with all minorities.”

As a measure of success, Tahir pointed to the confirmation of Zahid Quraishi as a federal judge in New Jersey in 2021. Quraishi was supported by APPAC and is the first Muslim federal district court judge in the nation’s history.

The son of Pakistani immigrants, Quraishi appeared as a panelist on Sunday. 

"I'm the only member of our community in the entire country that serves as [a federal] judge. And I'm not saying that to boast. What I'm saying is, that's a sad fact, we need to do better, right, we need to do more," Quraishi said during the panel.

Hirah Mir, chief diversity officer at the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, appeared as a panelist at Sunday’s event as well. The Queens resident, speaking before the conference, highlighted the importance of representation for youth.

“I think what's really important and something that I wish that I had was just a greater diversity of possibilities for youth and just seeing that there's not just one way in which your career can go or one way in which your lifestyle can go; that there are a diversity of paths that you can take,” she said. 

Arsal Ijaz, 16 and a rising junior at The Wheatley School in Old Westbury, is president and founder of the junior board. He said he hopes to help more young Pakistani Muslims get involved in civics.

“We are the future,” he said. “The APPAC community is always here; it's all groups, all ethnicities, all races, and we are looking for the youth that want to be involved, of any background.”

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com@brianne_ledda

Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.