HEC yet to reinstate student unions despite PM's nod

ISLAMABAD - The incumbent government decision to regulate the students' politics is yet to be implemented. The task was assigned to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to implement the Prime Minister's decision regarding the reinstatement of Student Unions. When contacted to an HEC official wishing anonymity, told TheNation that a seven members committee was constituted in this regard but members of the committee could not reach on a final proposal. He informed that consensus could not be developed due to differences among the committee members regarding the formula in a way to reinstate the students union. Earlier, the committee, constituted over the top public sector Universities VCs and HEC officials, was also called on the government officials to discuss the future strategy. The reliable sources told TheNation that in the said meeting members of the committee were not happy with the government decision and they have revealed their concerns to the government officials. The facts and figures showed that violence graph rose horribly during the period of ban over Students Union. Unprecedented events have made the educational institutions more vulnerable. Conspiracies against the education and the students did work awfully and negative use of the innocent students by the administration of the said institutions itself and then political parties further made the situation problematic. In the absence of the Student Unions, environment of the educational institutions could not be maintained peaceful, as was claimed earlier at the time of imposing ban on the Unions. According to a research report, published by Center for Educational Research & Policy Analysis (CIRAPA), Pakistan, during the period of Student Unions (1947 to 1984) , 151 violence cases were recorded while during the period of ban on Union (1984 to 2004) 525 cases were recorded. Similarly, before the ban period 13 students were killed but during the ban 165 students were murdered. Before imposing the ban, 284 students were arrested while during the ban period this figure was 7235 and 110 students were expelled while after that 985 students were expelled. It was observed that from 2004 to date these figures reached at horrible level. In the absence of an organise body, students divided into the regional, linguistic, ideological bases thus widening the vacuum for conspiracies, violence and misunderstanding. To divide the students in different factions, administration of the educational institution however, succeeded to achieve their limited goals but they did not analyse that how much damaged they have caused to educational institutions. While talking to TheNation, Vice Chancellor Qauid-e-Azam University has said that he did not oppose the government decision to reinstate the student unions, as it was the democratic right of the students. "But yes, I have shown some concerns and fears, which exists in my mind", he revealed. He was of the view that authoritative students might be misused their power. However, he condemned the decision of ban over student Union. He was of the view that ban was imposed in the past on the behest of a military dictator only to serve his vested interests. "There is no concept of ban on students' politics in the democratic societies of the world but unfortunately democracy in our country could not mature due to continue intervention of military dictators one after other", said Zubair Safdar, Director SERAPA. He maintained that so-called intellectuals had been advocating here against the students' politics, which have resulted that these institutions could not succeed to produce leadership to the society during the ban period but before that many leaders were introduced like Javed Hashmi PML-N, Jhangir Badar-PPP, and Liaqat Baloch -JI. He was of the view that it was also the main function of these institutions to train the students during their study period. Unfortunately, we could not succeed to create a culture of tolerance and coexistence in our society, which ultimately affected our institution like Universities, which have significance in every society and considered brain of a nation. But the decision of the present government to reinstate the student Unions has created a ray of hope in the darkness like situation.

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