A case for student unions

They have always been the agents of change. The engine pulling every revolution, the catalyst bringing socio-political change, the hope lighting in the darkness of disillusion and misery, their power has been the moving spirit behind every change that took place - the student power - the power that stems from the campus and institutionalized in the form of student unions. From the story of Mao Zedong to that of Gandhi, from that of Che Guevara to that of Martin Luther King, from Mandella’s triumph to Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s, it has been the wings and arms of every major revolution and peoples’ triumph.In Pakistan the debacle of the first czar, Ayub Khan, was caused by this power and probably it was then that the powers that be realized that if they want to build an unchallenged and secure hold on the society and polity of the land of pure, they will have to erode this powerhouse. And the plan began - a plan of demeaning the student power and student unions.For the first time in Pakistan, it was during Nizam-e-Mustafa that the political movement turned aggressively violent and from then on broken traffic signals, cars and window's of shops became hallmark of Jamiat and MSF processions on the Mall, Lahore. This developed a strong resentment for these processions in the minds of businessmen and commoners. Militant wings of religious parties, labeled as student unions, were allowed to run a rein of violence and terror on the streets of the city. To fuel this resentment further, the student unions of the pro-czar (czar now being Zia) parties, MSF and Jamiat, introduced arms and violence to campuses. First bullet fired in a campus is thanks to Jamiat and it was Jamiat and MSF that were responsible for much of the campus violence (with only absolute exception of MQM in Karachi - all the king's horses and all the king's men). Campuses turned into battle fields, thanks to the acts of prodigies of the czar. For survival, ultimately the others like ANP and PSF joined the course but in all rational analysis it was nothing more than an inappropriate and desperate reaction. The responsibility lied with the King's horses and King's men of MSF and Jamiat and with the public administration that allowed them to operate unhindered. I wish in his new found stand for truth, one day Nawaz Sharif could actually reveal his knowledge of how the government of Zia patronized these campus bullies and who’s who was on the payroll of agencies and Zia’s men (political class). The confession will be courageous on his part but every word worth gold for Pakistan. This violence turned political opinion against the student union. Establishment then used this as an excuse to ban student unions and thus destroy the very foundations of emergence of student power - the ultimate agent of change.

The Generals were appointed to the campuses to “restore normalcy”, to prove to the public that the menace has been dealt with by banning the student unions. I have studied on the campuses where these mobs ran amass and I have also seen the turnaround of UET, Lahore under a General and let me say it point blank, it was not because of the banning of student unions or charisma of General. It was thanks to a) throwing the non-student hooligans out of the campus and b) the cooperation the university administration received from high court in expelling miscreants among the students on disciplinary grounds. With these two things in place, campus violence will be gone with or without student unions. Discipline holds precedence, but its enforcement is responsibility of administration and its lack is no excuse for banning student unions.

Instead of rationally analyzing that it was merely a failure of law enforcement which can be resolved through effective law enforcement, public being so pissed off by campus hooliganism, mind you not by students but by agents of the czar in the name of students, welcomed the change. And so we the people happily surrendered our strength to the usurpers and have become more and more marginalized in this land of pure.

In our wandering in the abyss of nonexistence, if hope has to be brought back, we need to reclaim the source of our strength. Rationality has to prevail and we must realize that the problem was not student unions or student activism but a mob comprising a handful of prodigies of the usurpers and through this we have been trapped into willingly surrendering the biggest source of peoples' power.

If we have to reclaim our land and our due, student activism and student unions have to be restored and anyone who supports this is commendable and welcome.

P.S. I started writing this article a couple of days back and just in today's paper there is a statement by Ms. Bhutto that PPP is all for restoring the student unions. PPP deserves credit for showing the courage to raise an issue against the liking of popular opinion of urban middle and upper classes.