Student unions are a democratic right and must be restored, the National Student Federation (NSF) Punjab said in its message on the anniversary of the ban on student unions. Remembering the Zia governments’ decision to ban student union on 11 February 1984, NSF Punjab President Arfan Chaudhry called upon the current democratic government to restore student unions to allow students to articulate their own demands.
“The 27-year old ban had curbed democratic thinking and political maturity amongst students,” Arfan told students at a gathering, “The current coalition government must explain why it made no progress on its promise to restore the democratic rights of students.”
He said that the strangest part was that mainstream political parties were not campaigning for the restoration of student unions, despite each party having its own student wing.
He said the ban on student unions had been put by Zia to prevent students from challenging his dictatorship by raising the slogan of democracy. He said it was surprising that even the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf who had called for an education revolution had not included the demand of restoring student unions in its demands. Arfan said it was a false notion that the restoration of student unions would destroy the peace of education institutions. “Student unions should help decrease violence by increasing debate,” he said.
