ISLAMABAD: Student unions in Pakistan had traditionally nurtured leaders whose entry into politics was ideological, Senator Raza Rabbani said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the annual Asma Jahangir Memorial Lecture instituted by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Senator Rabbani said dictatorships of Ayub Khan and Ziaul Haq had deliberately isolated key ingredients of democratic struggle, including students, labour and intellectuals.

Although the Constitution protects the right to freedom of association, Pakistan had witnessed a systematic and premeditated plan on the part of the state to ‘manipulate’ and ‘deny’ this, he said.Senator Rabbani pointed out that the judiciary’s interim order banning student unions in June 1992 was ‘a clear infringement of Article 17’ and that its subsequent decision in March 1993 to allow limited student activity was based on the flawed understanding that it did not behoove students to be involved in political matters.

He said his efforts to move a bill removing Section 124A from the Pakistan Penal Code was inspired by the student movement in Pakistan, during which it was common practice for the state to attempt to suppress dissent by charging student leaders with sedition.

Underscoring HRCP’s position, honorary spokesperson I. A. Rehman said the issue of student unions was not limited to students alone — it was a national issue and one for which all citizens must take responsibility.

Thanking Senator Rabbani for having spoken on the occasion, HRCP’s chairperson Hina Jilani said the commission stood not just behind, but alongside the students’ movement and would continue to espouse their cause.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2021