Although Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Shrif is annoyed with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) sub wing Muslim Students Federation (MSF) due to their past history, it did not deter him from enlisting the full support of MSF workers for the success of his rally in Lahore, Pakistan Today learnt on Friday.
Sources said PML-N gave MSF workers the task to round up a maximum number of MSF workers and ensure the presence of at least 30 thousand students at the rally.
MSF activist said they had obeyed the order and now wanted the CM to reestablish their hold in MAO College and other colleges of the city.
Meanwhile, sources condemned the PML-N leaders on taking the MSF activists’ support, as they felt it would mark a new beginning of hooliganism in the various colleges of the province.
Although thousands of people across the provinces joined the PML-N rally against President Asif Ali Zardari, a majority of the MSF workers were seen joining the rally in order to please the CM and to end his annoyance with the MSF, which began when former dictator Musharraf forced the PML-N leadership to leave the country in 1999. With the exile of the Sharif brothers, MSF activists, who had a strong hold on the colleges in Punjab at that time, switched loyalties and joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q). At that time MAO College served as the MSF headquarters, where workers displayed support for PML-Q leaders by erecting huge billboards and began a campaign for PML-Q in the elections – something they had been doing for PML-N previously.
In 2008, when the Sharif brothers were in power again, stern action was taken against MSF workers and operations were carried out to purge educational institutes of MSF activists. MSF activist did their best to join PML-N again, but the Punjab CM never allowed it.
Now, on the occasion of a rally against President Zardari, senior PML-N leaders enlisted the full support of the MSF again and their activists were one of the major forces behind the success of the rally, as thousands of MSF workers from across the province participated in the rally.
MAO College MSF president said they had been assigned the task of bringing 30,000 students to the rally, adding that he had fulfilled the task. He said beside this, 500 MSF activists were around the CM, and it had been their duty to safely bring the CM to the stage.
According to another MSF activist seeking anonymity, they had been instructed to bring a maximum number of activists and students. Buses were hired for the purpose, whiel some were even brought to the event by force. He added that their purpose had been to please the CM, and now they wanted his support to get a stronghold on MAO College again. He said MAO College was their headquarters and they wanted it back.
A few days ago, MSF activists allegedly manhandled four faculty members of MAO College, who according to them.
Meanwhile, the teachers at MAO College criticised the CM for empowering MSF again, as according to them, the MSF activists who supported the CM in his rally were not students but gangsters who wanted a hold on the college for their vested interests. They said a PML-N MPA had given funds to these ‘students’ to ensure their support. They questioned whether it was not in the CM’s knowledge that student unions were still banned at institutions, thus empowering them for the attainment of his own goals was a crime. They said a period of bloodshed would begin at the city’s colleges because of PML-N’s support for these ‘students’.
A MAO College teacher seeking anonymity said it was a tragedy that they were protesting against the hooliganism of the MSF activists while the CM was encouraging them for the attainment of his political motives. He criticised the CM for using the state machinery for his rally, adding that enlisting the support of the illegal student union was proof that the purpose of the rally was not to protest against corruption and price-hikes, but to serve the CM’s own political motives.
