WHILE I was sitting with my friends at our usual spot at Karachi University, we had an encounter that we had previously only heard of and laughed off.

We made a group of one boy and six or seven girls. A gentleman walked up to us and politely requested to speak to the boy, in private.

The male friend got up and spoke to him. It turned out that we were occupying seats that belonged to others, i.e., to students who had joined a religious party. Much to our annoyance, we l got up and left.

We shared this experience with our other friends who were surprised to know that we had been sitting there. Apparently, it is an accepted fact that one is not supposed to occupy certain places. Such are stories of injustice and bias that we are subjected to.

Students are also beaten up at times and thrown on to a sidewalk, for sitting on ‘wrong’ seats in public buses. All this happens despite the fact that a prerequisite to our admission to Karachi University is an affidavit, signed and attested, saying that we will not become a part of any political activity, and neither will we participate in any of their activities.

However, once you start studying at the university, you see open defiance of the affidavit in the form of open and public recruitment of people into parties.

TOOBA AKHTAR Karachi