Hundreds of youth march across country for restoration of student unions

LAHORE: Hundreds of youth have participated in rallies entitled, Students Solidarity March, organised in different parts of the country, urging the government for restoration of student unions in educational institutions, ARY News reported on Friday.

The Students Solidarity March was attended by members of different student unions across the country that has also gained attention of the nationals, social activists, politicians, and ministers.

In Lahore, the administration of the Government College University (GCU) locked doors of the college to stop students from attending the solidarity march.

It is pertinent to mention here that students unions are restricted to carrying out activities in all educational institutions since the imposition of the ban in 1984 by the then military dictator late General Ziaul Haq. The ban had been slapped in an apparent bid to curb increasing violence and clashes between student unions.

Earlier in the day, Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhry took to Twitter to show his support for student unions in educational institutes.

Fawad Chaudhry minister tweeted that he was in favour of the demand being raised by a segment of the society, as long as the student union’s behaviour is kept under a close watch.

The tweet read: “I fully support Restoration of students unions, ban on students unions is anti democratic,we can always ensure that students politics must remain violence free and regulations may be introduced for smooth functioning but ban on students politics amounts to limit future politics.”

I fully support Restoration of students unions, ban on students unions is anti democratic,we can always ensure that students politics must remain violence free and regulations may be introduced for smooth functioning but ban on students politics amounts to limit future politics

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) November 29, 2019

Later, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai said Friday that the government is not mulling over the restoration of the student unions and no decision has been made so far regarding it.

Shaukat Yousafzai, in his statement to media, said, “I am in support for the restoration of students’ unions as I was also a students’ leaders in past.”

He clarified that the authorities have not taken any decision for the unions’ restoration. He, however, said that students’ unions had made some mistakes in past which could be removed. Yousafzai said that the unions have an important role for resolution of issues being faced by students in the educational institutions.