Speakers reiterate need to revive student unions for societal progress

Speakers at a Karachi Literature Festival session on Sunday stressed that the government should immediately revive student unions at educational institutions, saying that student politics has an important role in societal progress.

Author and cultural critic Nadeem Farooq Paracha moderated the session titled ‘Student Politics in Pakistan: Back to the Future’. The speakers included Lahore-based activist Arooj Aurangzeb, Geo News Managing Director Azhar Abbas, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s Faisal Subzwari, University of Karachi teacher Khalid Amin and youth activist Naghma Iqtidar.

The moderator and panellists had been part of student politics during their academic careers. The speakers discussed the factors behind the banning of student unions at educational institutions and the root causes of violence on campuses.

Arooj, whose viral video clip shows her singing Bismil Azimabadi’s ‘Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai’, said people from the middle and lower-middle classes have been divided on the basis of ethnic identity, while the elite class stands united for their interests.

She also brought the attention of the audience towards Saturday’s incident of violence at Lahore’s University of the Punjab, where, according to her, members of the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba attacked a group of Pashtun and Baloch students to ruin their cultural events on campus.

“We should overcome nostalgia. Academic institutions are still experiencing violence. Cultural activities on campuses are still seen as a threat, and cases of sedition have been registered against students when they demand to revive student unions.” She also said that in the absence of student politics, many generations of students in Pakistan have graduated without experiencing being a part of a student union.

Criticism

Abbas said Ziaul Haq’s military regime had banned student unions in 1984 because he was already afraid of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy against him, and he had feared that student unions could also weaken his grip on power.

Sharing incidents of his academic career, he said he had witnessed violence in the University of Karachi on his first day there. “At the time, then student leader Hasil Bizenjo [now a senator and former head of the National Party] was shot in the leg,” he said. He also criticised political parties for not reviving student unions during their respective terms in government in all these past years.

Young blood

Subzwari, who was the chairman of the All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organisation in the past, said there’s a real need to have elections of democratic student bodies and the local government to reinvigorate the country’s predominantly dynastic and parochial political structure with young blood. “A new generation of leaders can emerge only from student unions politics and the local government system.”

Divisions

Amin, who had been associated with the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad during his academic career, said that after student unions were banned, students were divided along ethnic lines. He sees the current crisis of leadership in mainstream politics as a direct outcome of the absence of student unions.

Declining freedom

Expressing her concerns on the declining freedom in educational institutions, Naghma, a former student leader, said paramilitary forces should be removed from campuses, and university security should be established to maintain law and order on campuses.

“Almost all state-run and private educational institutions ask students to submit a mandatory affidavit pledging not to partake in any political activity on campus,” she said. Paracha in his opening remarks had said that there is a dire need to document student politics in the country that has a tumultuous but rich democratic history.