It is not surprising that with half of our population aged below 30, and the students’ community lacking an experience in interacting with a body called student union, one is confronted with the query: student unions, why?

Having been a student leader, and elected as an office bearer of student unions of a college and a university during the 1950s and 1960s in the Punjab and Sindh, I feel qualified to talk about the relevance of unions for the student community in Pakistan. On both occasions, when I was elected as general secretary of the student union at the Islamia College, Civil Lines Lahore in 1959-1960, and as president of Karachi University’s student union in 1962-1963, the country was under the tutelage of the army led by General Muhammad Ayub Khan. The ban on student unions came only in 1984 when another usurper, General Ziaul Haq, held the reins of political power. Perhaps, he thought the ban would help give his reign eternal longevity.

The ban was lifted during Benazir Bhutto-led PPP government in 1989. However, on a petition seeking a ban on student unions in 1993, in the wake of armed violence, thanks (sic) to the induction of sophisticated weapons, and the consequent loss of life on educational campuses during the Afghan ‘jihad’, the Supreme Court put a blanket ban on political activities by students in campuses. It is argued that the apex court order did not mean [to impose] a ban on student unions but only on political activities. I hold the view that the honourable court failed to take into consideration the features distinguishing between student politics and the politics for political control over the governance of a state.

Student unions are also different from trade unions in that the latter cater to the demands of industrial and other workers, mainly for wages, working hours, overtime compensation and various other facilities. However, both have to mobilise their communities for collective efforts to achieve their demands and objectives. Unions were also formed between states, and the most notable ones include the now deceased Soviet Union and the European Union. All unions have a cause, a purpose – to improve the condition of their communities.

The urgency for the revival of unions – an issue highlighted by the ongoing country-wide movement launched by the Students Action Committee – has been felt because of the appalling condition of education in our country.

Right from administrative issues to those relating to fee structures and famished faculty, library and laboratory; security and discipline; harassment including sexual; gender imbalance; lack of basic facilities for students coming from various strata of the society; problems of staff and administration, there is much that requires to be done for genuine progress and development. Student unions are needed to serve as the main catalytic agent to achieve this as well as to serve as a prime stakeholder and a watchdog.

The ban on student unions by the most ruinous usurper and dictator, Ziaul Haq, hurt the education sector the most. The decades during which the student unions were functioning (even during military dictator regimes), the education sector was progressing. New campuses were being built, and universities, colleges and schools were being opened in the public sector catering to students from all backgrounds.

The urgency for the revival of unions, highlighted by the movement launched by the Students Action Committee, has been felt because of the appalling condition of education in our country.

Another disservice to education initiated during the Zia regime was the induction of military and paramilitary forces and the setting up of police stations on campuses. Irreparable damage has been inflicted upon academic pursuit by treating educational campuses as internment centres. It will be of interest to our present generation to be reminded about the state of affairs in the early post-independence decades.

This scribe is aware that our British-Union-Jack-saluting power elites remained stuck to the colonial system even after consuming almost a decade in the passage of the Constitution. They considered independence as a means only to acquire political power and control over the state. Obviously, it meant an adversarial relationship between the government and the citizens. And students being in the vanguard of the people felt obliged to fulfill their aspirations of reaping the fruits of freedom.

The people of Muslim India (the Muslim-majority regions in colonised India) had joined the Pakistan Movement, and in the process had paid a very heavy price – in life, blood and enforced migration from the divided provinces. Besides, the newborn state faced a massive influx of population in its then capital, Karachi. This included the families of government servants who had opted to serve in Pakistan and those Muslims from the Indian provinces where they were in minority and faced increased communal discrimination. They had contributed in its establishment and considered Pakistan their land of opportunity.

Student unions were already in existence in both wings of the country that faced an acute shortage of educational facilities, particularly in places facing a population influx.

No province except the Punjab had a university and a college for graduation in engineering. Only the Punjab and Sindh had medical colleges. A few colleges and a couple of medical and technical schools granting licences and certificates existed in other provinces.

Despite the concentration of political power and headquarters of variousnt services, this wing (now Pakistan), particularly the then capital Karachi, faced extreme shortage of educational facilities. Hurriedly, the Sindh University, which was later rechristened as Karachi University, was established in a Hindu missionary girls’ school building. Students of Sindh Muslim College forcibly took over a part of Dayaram Jethmal Science College to start graduation classes for arts subjects, and the Sindh Madressatul Islam School was upgraded as an intermediate science college. Colleges and schools, both public and private, were started in bungalows and houses left by migrating minority owners. The situation was similar in country’s other cities except those in central Punjab. High standard educational institutions were run by the Christian and Parsi communities’ organisations, where sons and daughters of top bureaucrats and the elite could manage to get admission.

Student unions took up cudgels to compel power elites to fund the public education sector. This enabled the youth belonging to all strata of the society to get higher education during the early decades. In the post-ban decades, education has become a commodity. Educational institutions, especially in the private sector, have turned into profit-earning ventures disabling the youth of the middle and lower strata to get higher education. Induction of elected student unions in public as well as private educational institutions will help combat lower stratum youth’s exclusion from higher education. The provincial and federal governments’ decision regarding the revival of elected student unions is most welcome.

The writer is a veteran journalist and a human rights activist.