Students in Pakistan have risen from the slumber enforced by the dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq. After successfully organising the first Student Solidarity March a year ago which brought together thousands of students on to the streets, this year’s Student Solidarity March has already been facing a vile social media campaign – showing the continuing fear of young people who think for themselves and offer a message of hope in dark times. Pakistan’s students had historically been champions of progressive politics, without regard to the official line from the state. Students represented a voice of hope before the state began to arm right-wing student groups on campuses, which left the impression that student politics was all about violence.
When the country made a democratic transition in 2009, one of the first promises the PPP government made was to restore student unions across the country. This never happened, despite the weak student organisations at the time continuing to demand the right to representation on campuses. In the meanwhile, the commercialisation of education has continued at full speed. The mushrooming of privatised higher education across the country has had disastrous consequences. In the last five years, the HEC has cancelled a number of degrees, while the state has continued to cut the higher education budget – with the sharpest cuts coming under the so-called pro-youth PTI government.
While once the government could have expected that its regular patronising treatment of students would go unchecked, the last few weeks have brought the plight of students across the country into focus. In Islamabad, the illegitimate attempt to shut private student hostels was met with protests. In the University of Jamshoro, students have protested against charges filed against 17 students for demanding safe drinking water. Students in the University of Balochistan have been protesting against allegations of sexual harassment on campus, while students have stood up to the vitriol against students raising revolutionary slogans at the Faiz Festival in Lahore. The University of Balochistan has responded by issuing a circular banning politics on campus, while the Punjab University has cancelled the degree of one student in the MPhil program in Pakistan Studies. In is in this context that the Student Solidarity March will be held today – with demands for student unions, reversing budget cuts, ending the presence of law-enforcement agencies on campuses, ending police cases against students, setting up committees to deal with sexual harassment, and the return of a world in which education was the responsibility of the state. This is a message of hope coming from those who will build the future of our country. We need to hear their voices and stand with them.