Punjab protests

Recent protests throughout Punjab, by both students and teachers, against the privatisation of government colleges have, in most cases, taken a violent turn. On December 8, protesters breached the security cordon around the Punjab Assembly and reached the door of the House. On December 9 and 10, students and teachers protested by destroying government and private property. The police responded by baton-charging, making arrests or registering cases, which was criticised by everyone from the media to the opposition. The new Lahore High Court chief justice took his first suo motu on the same issue.

Protests are a tool of expressing disagreement and people have the right to use that tool. However, people seem to think that a protest does not send a strong enough message until property is damaged or people are beaten up. People forget that every right guaranteed by the constitution comes with the condition that it must not violate the rights of others. Violent protests take the attention away from the real issue and reduce it to an instrument of politicking.

However, condemning this violence does not mean that the demands of the protesters should be dismissed. Those who oppose the formation of boards of governors (BoGs) say that this will result in higher fees, making public education out of reach for the common man. They think that BoGs will politicise education. Yet their reluctance is not reason enough to back down from a change in the education policy. If members of BoGs are educated and selected on merit, not nepotism, they might make standards a little better.

The government should have tried harder to take stakeholders into confidence before implementing such a policy. It is at the grassroot that the government efforts need to be focused if change is to be bought about. Superficial measures are bound to crack sooner or later.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2010.