‘Revival of student unions necessary for real change’

Activist and singer Jawad Ahmed launches campaign to revive student unions

KARACHI: Singer-turned-social activist Jawad Ahmed has announced a campaign in Karachi for the restoration of student unions in educational institutions, claiming that the revival is necessary to bring real change in society.

Student unions were banned in 1984 by the then military ruler of the country, Gen Ziaul Haq, in what is described as a means to ‘curb violence on campuses’. Three decades later, Pakistan Peoples Party-backed Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani announced the revival of student bodies, but it never occurred. “Due to the ban, the education system of the country has been modelled in such a way that it continues to support the status quo by keeping the class divisions in the society intact,” said Ahmed during a press conference on Tuesday.

Commenting on the schooling system, he said that it was divided into layers. “The upper layer is for the rich and produces rulers of the country while the bottom layer is for the poor who ultimately become the former’s servants,” he said.

Before the ban, said Ahmed, student unions played an important role in raising issues of fee increase, lack of transport and unavailability of scholarship. “They were like the political nurseries of future leaders, regardless of caste or creed,” he said.

According to Ahmed, he was struggling for the restoration of student unions through the platform of the International Youth and Workers Movement (IYWM) and his campaign was already in place in the Punjab.

When asked about what his future course of action will be, he said that the IYWM will go to colleges and universities and will invite all student forces, irrespective of their ideologies, to join hands.

During the press conference, student activists of the 1960s, Dr Tariq Suhail, head of Jinnah Medical and Dental College, and psychiatrist Dr Haroon Ahmed, were also present.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th,  2016.