Revival of student unions discussed at Adab Festival

At a session, ‘Challenges to Youth and Their Consequences: Is the restoration of student unions the solution to problems’, held on the first day of the Adab Festival 2020 on Friday, speakers said voices of students and youth are out of earshot particularly at the educational institutes because of the shrinking space for critical thinking. As the students even cannot speak up for their rights, it further curtails the role of youth in society.

The speakers included Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (Szabist) faculty member Dr Riaz Ahmed Shaikh, journalist Fawad Hassan, student leader Sindhu Nawaz, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology faculty member Asghar Dashti, and rights activist Naghma Shaikh, Zahabia and Shaheera Jalil Albasit. The session was moderated by Anis Haroon, a senior members of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

The participants also discussed the draft bill for the revival of student unions. Talking about the student politics and unions, Dr Riaz said some people were anxious regarding the revival of student unions and had this argument that after the restoration of student unions, there would be unrest on campuses and curricular activities would be disturbed.

The Szabist academic, however, said the critics of student unions did not take into account the fact that unions were going to provide a basic platform of politics to the students and would help them learn more about democratic values so that after their graduation, they were able to play a positive role in building a democratic culture. “The arguments that unionism of students would create unrest on campus have no foundations. We have observed that those who had actively taken part in student politics are also successful professionals in their relevant fields.”

Naghma said education systems that discriminated among various segments of society created hurdles for the youth. She added that education was a basic human right, not a privilege, and the state needed to provide equal opportunities to all classes of society.

Shaheera said the unchecked use of money in politics made it almost impossible for the working-class youth to take part in politics while the existing political structure of the country did not allow the youth to talk about their rights.

Haroon pointed out that the Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan ensured equal access to education for all. Thus, the state has to make arrangements to bring students of seminaries into the mainstream educational system, she said.

Dashti said some forces were striving hard to depoliticise our society as they wanted to impose their own agendas. They also create hurdles in the revival of student unions. They feel such activities as a threat that got in the way of their interests. However, such elements could be defeated through continuous struggle, he maintained.