TUESDAY’S clash at the Punjab University, which left at least 10 students injured, had been many months in the making. The cadres of the Islami Jamiat Talaba and the Pakhtun and Baloch students lodged in the PU hostels had exchanged blows many times over the last couple of years. The collision took place since these students from Balochistan and KP did not appear beholden to the strict code of the IJT, the PU being one of its main laboratories from the Gen Zia days or even earlier. In what must have been most offensive to the long-dominant force on campus, these ‘outsiders’ — who feel safer staying close to each other — showed little inclination for learning the ways of life at an average public-sector college in Lahore. However, it was soon realised, that they, like so many others, were the product of circumstances; these Pakhtun and Baloch students came to be looked upon as a combating force — a nemesis — for the IJT boys to grapple with at a time when their old patrons had started to consider the Jamiat a liability.

Past vice chancellors were crucial promoters of the IJT. But this was no longer the case when the students from KP and Balochistan had made it abundantly clear that they had their own ways and were not going to be intimidated by the diktat of the IJT that had been playing the role of the oversensitive big brother. Not just that, the IJT as well as its parent body, the Jamaat-i-Islami, had lost the clout they had enjoyed for long courtesy of their close ties with the PML-N, the ruling party of Punjab. The Jamiat could still hope to wield some influence when JI’s window of reconciliation with the PML-N was open. But its public image was severely weakened once it was evident that the Sharifs, who were out to convince the outside world of their commitment to fight fundamentalism in Pakistan, saw merit in keeping their distance from the JI. It was also feared that a drastic reduction in influence could lead to desperate measures being taken by the old campus kings. And a musical event by a new rival was just too big an opportunity for some of the elements to ignore. In a changed situation, the signs are that the objective of ruling the campus through fear may be too tough to achieve now. The old tactics might not work.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2017