LAHORE: The People’s Student Federation (PSF) took out a motorcycle procession here on Sunday to kick off a campaign for restoration of student unions in the educational institutions.

The procession of the student wing of the Pakistan People’s Party started from Model Town and ended at the Governor House where the participants held a demonstration to demand restoration of the student unions.

The PSF activists held the party flags. Some PSF and PPP leaders were riding on a truck decorated with a large picture of the party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Addressing the participants, PPP Punjab organising committee member Nadeem Asghar Kaira said the PSF’s large procession was enough to open the eyes of the analysts who had termed the PPP dead in the province. He said the student unions were banned by Gen Zia to promote his extremist agenda in educational institutions.

“Shaheed Benazir Bhutto had restored the democratic right of students but the unions were again banned,” he said, adding PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto had already announced that he would restore student unions after coming to power.

Former president of the PSF Punjab University, Faisal Mir, said Pakistan was the only democratic country in the world where students were not allowed to form unions. He said the PPP would establish the PSF in every college and university of Lahore and bring about a revolution under the leadership of Bilawal who “is an ideal leader for students”.

Ex-president PSF Lahore division Imran Dogar said the PSF would prove itself as strong arm of Bilawal and warned the PSF would take to the street if student unions were not restored.

Dr Zarrar Yousuf, Shahzad Shafi, Aqib Sarwar and Ali Ahsan Awan also spoke.

Earlier, Bilawal Bhutto had directed the Sindh and Azad Jammu and Kashmir governments to lift the decades-old ban on student unions in educational institutions to allow the students to participate in the healthy democratic activities. He also asked them to make appropriate legislation and rules in this regard.

The mainstream student organisations like the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), Muslim Students Federation (MSF), Peoples Students Federation (PSF) and Insaf Students Federation (ISF) believe the other provinces, especially Punjab, may find no excuse for ban on student unions if such unions are restored in Sindh and AJK and elections are held subsequently.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani recently had also termed the ban on student unions in educational institutions “unconstitutional” and referred the matter to a committee of the whole house to submit recommendations.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2016