The Pakistani youth is one of the most important themes in this election. But experts and activists will tell you that they are treated more as a voting bloc than a political force–the youth and student activism of the 1970s is no more. Ikram Junaidi explores the votes and politics of the Pakistani youth.

As many as 25 million strong, registered voters 29 years and younger could play a decisive role in the election scheduled in under less than a month.

Their enormous electoral power has caused political parties and observers alike to refer to them, or in some cases attempt to directly include them.

But despite their enormous electoral strength, more traditional forms of youth organisation–in the form of students’ politics and unions–are far less active than they were in the past.

Nazir Ahmed, a retired principal of a college in Rawalpindi, said that students played a key role in politics between the 1960s and 1990s. Political parties used to depend on student unions for political activities–especially for more agitational approaches.

“There were students unions in almost every college. As a result, politicians emerged from grassroots politics. There were a lot of complaints, calling for a stop to student union activity–people would say that educational activities suffer because of student unions. But if you ask me, students should be involved in political activities because that is the only way they can become good politicians,” he said.

In 1984, Pakistan’s second military ruler and former president General Ziaul Haq, imposed a ban on student unions. Political activities among students continued, as the youth filled the streets to resist the military rule of the Zia regime.

In the 1990s, students played an important role during long marches led by both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif. After Musharraf’s coup, both Bhutto and Sharif spent years outside the country, and the government discouraged student politics.

According to Alia Amirali, the secretary general of the left-wing National Students Federation and a political activist working to regenerate student politics on university campuses, this was an enormous mistake.

“Student politics is the site of political training. It is where political culture is made, it is where you get motivated, thoughtful, imaginative, learned, experienced political workers for your political parties. Any political party that ignores the role of student unions in the generation of workers and leaders is going to die an early political death,” says Amirali, whose NSF was one of the foremost student unions in Pakistani politics in the 70s.

Amirali goes on to criticise the political parties for what she feels are “meaningless overtures” aimed at the youth.

“It is ironic that youth is being championed by so many political parties. If you look at their election manifestoes and political programmes, they are quite the opposite of youth-centric.

“There is very little focus on health, education, or employment, all issues that the youth find important,” says Amirali.

“For me and my organisation it is meaningless to speak of the youth and their power, without talking about the restoration of their politics. All students are not at universities, but it is important for a significant section of the youth.

“Any political party that wants to extend beyond its own interests, and wants to genuinely establish a stronger footing for democracy is going to have to look beyond their immediate party interests, and restore the unions,” says Amirali.

President of the Federal Government College Teachers Association, Professor Tahir Mahmood, said that the reason for the fall of student unions also lay in their internal in-fighting.

“Leaders of student unions also played a role in defaming their own organizations. Rather than resolving the issues of students, they spent most of their time fighting with each other,” he says.

Mehmood goes on to say that structural changes over time have caused a fall in the concept of the student union.

A large number of students have been studying in private colleges–a place where there is little, if any, concept of student unions.

Social media as a substitute tool “I don’t see any role for student unions in the forthcoming elections. However, because of the rise in technology, a large number of students and younger voters have used social media to convince each other,” says Mehmood, who goes on to call for a less political, and more electoral, push for change from the youth.

“Change will come only through the ballot,” he says.

The activists of the Insaf Student Federation (ISF) agree.

“The ISF is an autonomous body that has been working to promote Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) and mobilise votes for the party among the youth. It is correct that role of student union in election campaign has been minimised and now social media is being used for election campaigning,” he says.

“We have been using social media for mobilising youth and giving information about the candidates and allegations against them. We have to convince every person that he or she should vote for change,” he says.

“Quarter (25pc) of party tickets has been given to the youth by the PTI leadership. And the PTI has modelled itself as a party of change. I am sure 40 million new voters can make a huge change,” he says.

Media coordinator of the Tanzeem Talaba-i-Islam (TTI) Attiqueur Rehman said that political, cultural, ethnic and geographical divide makes it difficult to organise youth on the basis of their young ages.

“Students find it difficult to play a healthy role in political activities,” he told Dawn.

The president of People’s Youth Organisation (PYO), Syed Agha Mohammed Ali Shah, said that despite the decrease of youth activities in educational institutions, they might play a key role in voting.

“Students are less interested in political activities. But, we are confident that we will convince a large number of youngsters that the PPP is the best option for them,” he said.

The president of the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) Youth Wing Islamabad, Sardar Saud, said that the MSF was not investing on social media because the PML-N believed that there should be people to people contact.

Amirali says that this indicates a depoliticisation of the youth. “And thereby, an attempt to exclude them. The apolitical youth politics of the PTI and others is a problematic development,” says Amirali.