Recently, there was a standoff between students and the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, administration. The students were protesting against increasing fees and demanding better facilities on the campus. Since the university administration was ignoring their demands, the students argued, they had decided to set up Quaidians Students Federation (QSF), a student body that would work to protect the rights of the university students. The protesting students demanded that the university administration stop widespread corruption and recognize QSF as a representative student body. The university management remained unresponsive to students’ legitimate demands and kept on employing the delaying tactics for months.
This stalemate eventually led to cancellation of an international conference on the campus, as the students broke into the venue and started chanting slogans. Following the incident, the administration responded aggressively, expelling 11 students from the university. After this there was a huge mobilization of students against the admin decision to which it ultimately succumbed and had to restore the expelled students.
If there is one lesson one can learn from the fiasco, it is this: students must have a platform where they may organize themselves and from which they may voice their grievances. Political process is always an antidote to violence. The denial of on campus politics will result only in further such deadlocks, as mentioned above, which will definitely harm the educational environment. It is high time the government fulfilled its promises and removed the unjustifiable ban on student unions.
