Recognising Student Unions

This year too, like all the past years, there have been quite a few clashes between students in colleges and universities. In the Adamjee Science College, earlier this year, there was a clash between the IJT and the APMSO, in which dozens of students received minor injuries and a motorbike parked outside the building was torched. Again in April, fifteen students were injured in Karachi University’s traditional, yearly tussle between, once again APMSO and IJT, with the Rangers rushing about with batons, pretending to control the situation. On the same day, NED next door had a clash, so did Federal Urdu University’s Gulshan campus. In KU there was the usual stone throwing contest, and attacks with iron rods and sticks, but this time some armed students were present and shots were fired in the air. However luckily no one was hurt. In the very same month, five motorcycles were completely destroyed, along with furniture and others fixtures, during a clash between two students groups at Islamia Arts and Commerce College. Once again, none other than the IJT and the APMSO were involved.

As usual the causes of the violence are never known in news reports, and onlookers present during these clashes automatically presume-and are usually right-that the matter was a trivial one.

As we all know, this has not been the first time that there have been clashes and tussles between student groups, on the premises of their respective institutes. This has been an oft-occurring situation over time, slowly increasing, and it is high time now that something should be done about this matter.

What the authorities must realize is that the problem, cannot be solved without first understanding that student politics is something that is banned in all government institutes. By this it is meant that students are not allowed to become politicized and the student wings’ power has been considerably diminished.

This ban was started in the 80s, when General Zia was bursting with his ‘power testosterone’. Student bodies were restricted mainly because of the upsurge in leftist elements in the political parties of that time. One of these was the National Student Federation or the NSF as it is generally referred to and remembered as, also well known for its socialist dealings with various issues. More parties, attempted to follow with liberal policies and this left Zia’s dictatorial government in trepidation of having ‘too much democracy’ in the country. NSF was banned and so was student politics, and surprisingly no one has seriously thought about permitting them to start off once again.

The fact of the matter is that prohibiting political parties on campus is in actuality curbing students’ rights. That is why there are clashes and conflicts as well as demonstrations and strikes by these so-called ‘banned’ or rather, half-functional student parties taking place all the year round. Simply put, the reason for this paradoxical situation is that because of the ban, there are no rules for the parties to follow, and therefore there are no rules to protect the rights of the apolitical student-or the political one for that matter. Likewise there are no means of punishing those students that cause disturbance within the campus. There are no paradigms of conduct within which the political parties can serve as a body for the students’ representation. If there is no set of laws, the there can be no behavior that can be sharply defined as the abidance to, or deviation from rules.

Students need unions so that they are able to voice their opinions and ideas about politics. The domination of two or three select parties in Karachi, and their own student wings in the various institutions of Karachi, has resulted in these parties intimidating others and as a result restricting the different free flow of ideas. Once other parties are properly recognized, and the ban is lifted, there will be less pressure in freedom of thought, and everyone will have sovereignty in openly talking about what they believe is right. Presently, there is so much fear, especially in the liberal, progressive student he fears that he cannot openly claim to be what he is, and this threatening to the identity of the youth. This is one cause of social alienation in many young people today.

“Once you disagree with them,” says Ajmal, a student who used to be in the Pakistan Youth Front, a student wing of the Labour Party, “you are harassed mentally concerning your grades, you are caused severe distress, you are not given respect, and worst of all, sometimes, they are in the waiting for anything to happen so they can pounce on you and beat you up. It happened with a friend of mine, so I know.”

“Its not fair, that in order to strengthen the local student union, other young men are imported from outside the campus from other campuses, to help beat up their political rivals, and there are no rules to stop them from doing so. The security provided by the Rangers is not enough. I could say there are several people in the authorities who have, under the counter, allowed the use of sticks, to bar the students from doing anything worse. What can one do in such a situation? How can you be expected to fight, when all political opposition is suppressed?” mourns Wasim, another student who is politically involved.

A misconception among many is that students’ involvement in politics is a waste of time, and calls for danger. The latter may be true to some extent, but surely it is true that for a young person in search of his or her identity, he or she must be know themselves politically and ideologically. It is incorrect to think that this is a waste of time. It is the youth’s right and duty to have a voice in the politics of this country. If this does not happen, we will be whirling around forever in a full circle, and revolving around only two or three dominant parties. Political parties should be allowed to flourish and crop up, and survive only with the support of people not because a powerful or influential group or institution has patronized them. It is high time the youth realized this.

This is why the politics in Pakistan lacks the true voice of the people that it should have. Political alienation is not the answer to the problems in this country. People, especially the youth, should be more politically inclined in order to make the voice of people’s rule stronger and therefore more united.

It is no wonder that there are brawls between students of colleges and universities in the city. If the students have no way of channelizing their ideas into the form of an organized representative body, then violence as a result of frustration will be the only outcome of the state of affairs.

Higher authorities that are concerned with this issue should take up this matter genuinely in order to give youth their political freedom that is, in reality, their right, and their duty.