The chairperson of Baloch Students Action Committee Dr Nawab Baloch demanded that investigations be launched in all the major educational institutions across the province including Sardar Bahadur Khan Woman’s University and culprits involved in violence against women be punished strictly. The Karachi-based Progressive Student Federation, a Left-wing students’ forum which is active in organizing students all over Pakistan tweeted:”Pictures from protest against the sexual harassment and blackmailing of students in UOB Quetta Jointly organized by PRSF and BSAC in Karachi University. The ruling Tehreek-e-Insaf government banned all activities in March this year.

Sher Mohammad Bugti, central spokesman of the Baloch Republican Party also tweeted “Struggle for Freedom of Balochistan - Balochistan, d students who raised voice against injustice, instead of justice d state has banished them from d university, have put handcuffs in their hands & thrown behind bars. This is d level & value of basic human rights in Pak”.

The Federal Investigation Agency went into the allegation of alleged harassment and blackmail of students at the campus, and interrogated three officers of the UOB .One of those probing FIA officials informally disclosed that as many as 12 videos of harassment of female students (plus six hidden CCTV cameras for verification) were traced and found substantial evidence in the allegation but punitive action is mired in uncertainty.

The call by students of UOB for revival of students got an encouraging response from the Sindh Provincial Assembly that passed a resolution unanimously for lifting the ban on forming student unions universities in colleges and universities. Subsequently students in both private and public sector educational institutions raised demands for organised representative bodies to articulate their demands.

Article 17 of the Constitution of Pakistan empowers every person the right to form association. The Supreme Court never denied this right, but General Zia robbed the students of this fundamental right as his feudal and dictatorial mindset was against intellectual and physical space for young adults in colleges and universities in the name of preventing violence on campuses, and his perverted perception that student unions would cause ‘erosion of cultural values. But he allowed right wing Islami Jamiat-i-Tulaba to function and flourish. It was encouraged to carrying on its activities despite serious accusations of their armed violence in university campuses across Pakistan.

In the recent years private members in the Senate and National Assembly made attempts for restoration of the rights of student unions. In 2016 a private member the Senate moved a motion that led to the formation of a Committee of the Whole to deliberate on the issue. Following lengthy discussions with all stake holders invited therein and copies of the 1993 SC verdict being distributed among members of the CoH for deciding whether a legislation be made to overturn it, or provide room for manoeuvre . Finally, the CoH unanimously noted that the 1993 verdict had directed that “arrangements shall be made as soon as possible and not later than a month to take steps for developing, restoring or re-organising a healthy students discussion and other activity in any form suitable to the individual institutions which might be called by any description; regarding which arrangements for elections shall also be made.”

Thereafter the Senate unanimously concluded that the revival of students unions would not be a violation of the verdict. It stated that that the murder of Mashal Khan in a university in Mardan could have been prevented had student unions had been functioning Civil rights activists and peacenics were up in protest when the 23 year old Mashal Khan was attacked and killed by an angry inside the campus of Khan Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in 2017, following a dormitory debate on religion. In February 2018 the court convicted 31 people, sentencing one person to death, while acquitting 26 others.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI and his government is not keen on reviving student unions due to the PM’s unwritten allegiance to Miltablishment which is averse to the restoration. Military biggies cannot forget the role of students in forcing President Ayyub Khan to step down in the late 1960s. (IPA Service)