KARACHI:
I have personally witnessed many of my sophisticated and talented university fellows ruined by ethnic councils existent in universities. The principal objective of the formation of these ethnic councils is to preserve political and ethnic communities’ identities with honour and dignity. In the attempt of doing so, however, they take on aggression and rage when their identities comes under threat of invisibility by massive heterogeneous crowds of universities.
Interestingly, one of the explicit objectives behind ethnic council formation is that they work for students’ welfare. Employing welfare tactics not only helps them increase their membership but also allow them to exercise violence against others. Paradoxically, these councils have become a platform to display hatred, discrimination, aggression and stereotyping towards students belonging to different social-cultural backgrounds.
In a recent clash between two ethnic groups of Quaid-e-Azam University, one of my close friends, who has held outstanding academic records throughout his journey, was given horrendous physical injuries just because he belonged to a different cultural identity.
In the light of these mounting incidents, it is evident that these councils are not only a threat to a healthy academic atmosphere, but also responsible for escalating insecurities among students. Therefore, in order to eliminate the prevalent toxic culture of ethnic councils from universities, universities and student bodies need to take a collective step towards fostering peace, harmony, cultural inclusivity and respect for diversity among the students of different socio-cultural backgrounds
Zuhaib Hussain
Islamabad
Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2024.
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