Lost Leaders Inc.

For four years of my university life, I missed a platform to raise my voice and groom my leadership skills; the platform which happens to be a democratic right of every student and is popularly known as "student union" had been banned from functioning during the Zia-ul-Haq era. Since then the students union offices turned into stores piled up with office records or furniture (mostly used by rival student groups in clashes) at all public sector universities in the country.

Imposing a decision without proper planning and consideration has been the hallmark of all the governments in Pakistan; likewise, banning the student unions was a decision that deprived the youngsters from getting good leaders, as a result of which we see incompetent leadership all around us.

No use staying mum

University being the highest seat of learning is the final institute that prepares an individual for the society. It is this place where a student studies society and gets a chance to push back the frontier of human ignorance. Hence, one of the prime objectives of research is to find a solution to existing social problems but unfortunately our universities have failed to do so. Leaving few private universities aside, the public universities are on a gradual decline, losing their worth with every passing day. In some disciplines they might be at par with global or regional standards, but as far as producing motivated and determined citizens is considered, their performance remains depressing. There are countless issues revolving around public universities ranging from the recent controversy about the status of the HEC to several campus issues, and along all these problems, the absence of a democratic student body on campus is a major dilemma.

Being a beneficiary of a public sector university, I believe the absence of student unions isn’t as big a matter as is the presence of student wings of political parties. The student unions were not banned because they failed to achieve their targets. It was done solely due to the violence which claimed many lives. The situation deteriorated over a number of years as these student political wings got stronger and stronger. Ultimately, they created such a complete mess that they had to be banned. All that remains of the student unions is the memory of hostility they left behind.

With no inclination towards any particular union, it has been my observation for the last four years that the IJT has apparently been most active in campaigns to restore student unions. On this, issue Bilal Zuhaib, who belongs to the All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organisation (APMSO), was asked why the APMSO does not do much to restore the unions. He said that the APMSO is also in favour of restoring unions, but "it is the VC who has to do it - not us." He stresses the fact that the administration has to be impartial before restoring unions.

Apolitical platform

In the debate whether student unions should be restored or not, the neutral students, who, in strength outnumber the combined students affiliated to any political, religious or linguist group suffer the most. Students affiliated with any ‘party’ can get their things done via force, but neutral students who are far more talented usually fail to play their part as there is no platform through which they can register their problems. Ms Azadi Fateh, who has been a student at KU and is now a faculty member at the Federal Urdu University of Science & Technology, believes that the restoration of student unions has become a complex issue. The universities, at times, are unable to provide security to teachers. Especially, it is the examination department that remains under most pressure. Over time, teachers have developed their own tactics to deal with these dangerous student groups. Hina Mujeeb Alam, an active student who struggled for four years to make KU an apolitical zone remarks that these student political wings are the prime reason for all the problems on campus. "They are the self declared guardians of all campus affairs. Without having any official status these groups rule the campus. Students not affiliated with any group cannot even imagine confronting them, and even the teachers follow the dictation given to them by these groups," discloses Hina.

In a meeting hed at the Governor House in October last year, a delegation of the KU students complained about this issue. "I pointed out to the governor that the group belonging to his party is also responsible for trouble on campus, to which the governor humbly agreed, but so far no action has been taken to curb these groups in KU," remarks Hina.

"In our tims, the student unions were the nursing grounds for leaders, but now there is so much politics in everything that restoring the unions can pave way for the political groups to engage in more aggressive politics on campus, and to avert such a situation, it is better that the unions remain banned," comments Professor Dr. Mahmood Ghaznavi, who is a faculty member at KU and was a student leader before the unions were banned in 1984.

To be or not to be

In this scenario it becomes difficult to predict whether history will repeat itself, in case the unions are restored or not. There are hardly any chances that the political parties would realise their responsibility and make their students obey the laws made by the university. Expecting this would be like expecting the political parties of Pakistan to stop exploiting the poor and working together in the larger interest of the nation … in short, not possible, at least for now.

Does this mean that student unions will never be restored and our students will remain deprived of their rights? These political groups who have transcended all limits of indecency will keep impairing our educational institutions. Whether we like it or not, this is what the ground realities reflect.

The conditions… still the same

In his first speech to the nation, the PM announced the decision of restoring student and trade unions, but unfortunately all the public sector universities in the country are not ready for taking this step, as they believe it’s risky and would result in further mismanagement. Not that it is helping the educational institutes, it’s the other way round, yet it seems like the authorities are too scared to bring a change.

Another interesting oint is that unlike other social, political and economic spheres, in which we as a nation follow the West blindfolded, in this important matter we don’t. We have not realised the immense loss it has continuously been causing us. In the United Kingdom, nearly all the student unions of the colleges and universities are members of the National Union of Students, and through NUS students represent their views to a whole range of external organisations, like the media and even the Parliament. Whereas in Pakistan, the students on campus are exploited by the other students and do not realise that they are being used for political objectives. Ironically, there are a number of students who are not ‘allowed’ to get into public universities as their parents fear for their lives. Such remarks indicate that students who actually study there are probably not safe.

The entire charm of studying at a university, particularly at the large public sector universities, has been dimmed. Now going to a university is almost like going to some skill learning centre, and undoubtedly clerks after clerks are being produced. And then, we blame we don’t have educated leaders. Just think about who’s at fault here.

General Zia Ul Haque was responsible for banning the student unions. It is believed that Zia encouraged rivalry between pro-regime groups, allowing each one to carve out its own fiefdom and turn campuses into a no go area for its rivals. In Karachi and Lahore, hostels were allowed to be used as arsenals as well as places where one armed group confined and tortured the activists of the other group. The idea was to keep the students’ groups fighting against one another instead of uniting against the dictator. After Zia, the unions remained banned but killings still remain a regular occurring. In fact, now guns and hockey sticks have been replaced by bombings. Remember the incident where a hand bomb was used in the KU in December 2010? Hitting the students with bottles, sticks or even opening fire on them seems like normal. It makes a concerned student like me wonder whether the unions will ever be restored again. The genuinely concerned students are left with only one option: to get their degrees and fly away and let things be the way they are, which reminds me of a line uttered by Plato: 

Those who refuse to participate in politics are destined to be ruled by their inferiors.