IJT announces protest on The Mall on October 25

Says students are being deprived of rights despite increased education budget

LAHORE: The Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), announced a Haqooq-e-Talaba (students’ rights) march on The Mall on October 25.

In a press conference on Friday at the Lahore Press Club, IJT leaders, including Lahore IJT Nazim Jibran Butt and Punjab University IJT Nazim Usama Ijaz, announced the march and said it would be led by JI Ameer Siraj ul Haq.



The IJT leaders demanded for the restoration of student unions, uniform education system, improvements in the quality of education, end of corruption in the education system and a decrease in fee.

Jibran Butt said students were suffering because of these problems and demanded an end to corruption in the education system of the country. “Ordinary students are being deprived of education because of the continuous rise in fee of education institutions, whereas the administrations were lining their own pockets.”

“We demand an allocation of 5% of GDP for education so that ordinary students can benefit from it”. He said that the real purpose of education was to develop intellect. However, he added it was unfortunate that educational institutions of the country had inculcated the belief in students that the purpose of education was just to obtain a degree.

Butt said that the government increased the allocation in the education budget, but it was unfortunate that educational institutions continued to raise their fee. Usama Ijaz claimed that the emergence of ethnic groups in educational institutions was because of the ban on student unions. He also claimed that the IJT was the biggest representative body of students and their rights.



The IJT leaders said that they would hold a grand rally in favour of their demands on October 25 on The Mall. He was confident that thousands would participate in the march.

It is pertinent to mention here that several political parties and unions had been stopped from coming onto The Mall for protests and sit-ins.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2017.