Should Student Unions be Part of Universities?

Osama Hayat

Annotated Bibliography

WRCM 102 Writing and Communication

Prof Farheen Saeed

April 1st 2022

1
 Annotated Bibliography

 Tariq, Mustafa. “Why are student unions illegal in Pakistan?” Geo News,
Feb 10, 2022. https://www.geo.tv/latest/398281-why-are-student-unions-
still-illegal-in-pakistan
 Mustafa Tariq an activist with Progressive Students’ Federation and an IR
student, explains why student unions became illegal in Pakistan. He
illustrates why Zia banned student unions and how the citizens got
deprived of there basic right. He uses specific examples that how student
unions were labelled as violent groups. Tariq explains that how student
unions have benefitted students, promoted cultural diversity and defended
his argument with pure evidence. He also examines student unions in
politics by giving examples of past that how students made countless
sacrifices for a separate homeland and how they stood against dictators.
In the end he says that “more than violence, it was political expediency
that led to the ban.” Tariq stays logical in his arguments to support his
personal opinion. His style and vocabulary make the article easy and
interesting.

 Muaz, Syed. “1984: The murder of Pakistan’s student unions.” Dawn,

Feb 9, 2015. https://www.dawn.com/news/1162514
 Syed Muaz is a freelance writer, Lawyer and Director of Centre for
Human Rights Ziauddin University. He writes in his article that most
of the young population is unaware of there rights. Muaz then
emphasizes on what people think the reasons were behind banning
student unions. He explains that what benefits the students enjoyed
due to student unions and what followed after the ban. He focuses on
the point that student unions were not always part of politics but
played a vital role in campus development and for the welfare of
students. Muaz then seems concerned that due to the ban, the concept
of responsible governance has died in the minds of the youth and they
have become politically immature. Muaz tried his best to explain how
the student unions were murdered by the hands of dictators. He quotes
“Paul Collier” that how ethnic identity trumps national identity. His
writing style reflects his rational approach.

2
  Agency, Anadolu. “Ban on student unions causes ‘political drought’ in
Pakistan.” The Express Tribune, Feb 08, 2022.
 Anadolu Agency is a credible Turkish news agency founded in 1920.
Mahmood Ghaznavi elected president of the student union at Karachi
university in 1981-82 told Anadolu Agency that the ban created a
‘political drought’ in the country, which allowed ruling elite to create
“test-tube babies” in politics. He also told that before the ban, several
student unionists rose to prominence in politics, and some of them are
now ministers like Asad Qaiser, Syed Amin ul Haq, Ahsan Iqbal, Raza
Rabbani etc. He emphasizes on the point that, political parties
included in their manifesto to lift the ban on student unions. Nawaz
Sharif in 1989 CM Punjab held student election in which IJT won and
Sharif’s party’s student wing, trailed far behind. Amir ul Azam IJT
president Punjab university told that “Student unions would produce a
lot of politicians who knew the art of contesting elections and
administrative skills.” Tauseef Ahmed khan, former chairman Mass
communication department at Urdu university told that due to the ban
political parties were captured by “businessman” and “real estate
agents” rather than trained leadership. Then Sardar Abdul Rahim a
former parliamentarian and president of student union Karachi
university told that there has been no effective ban, instead only
elections can’t be conducted. Anadolu also says that ban brought
violence. As dozens of students have lost their lives. There have been
clashes between the rival groups. Anadolu has presented a full
overview of the scenario after the ban. While it has quoted several
credible sources who have been part of student unions. The article is
full of credible and interesting information.

 Rashid, Ammar. “If student unions are bad for education, why are our
controlled campuses ranked among the worst in the world?” DAWN,
28 Nov, 2019.
 Ammar Rashid is a researcher in development, public policy and public
health who currently works as a senior researcher at Heartfile. He says
that due to ban on student unions, has resulted in a gaping leadership and
governance problem, depriving politics of society's best educated and
energetic individuals and leaving politics dominated by moneyed elites
exclusively concerned with their own survival. It has exacerbated our
divisions, leaving young people with few opportunities to connect with
one another and think and act as a group. Ammar also writes that
economy has been harmed by the suffocation of intellectual freedom and
the closure of students' brains, depriving it of scientific and technological
3
 innovation that has fueled the growth of better-educated societies and a
high-quality, well-organized labour force. This has to be changed. Our
ailing educational system must be revamped, with students at the centre,
as recognised citizen-stakeholders in policymaking and reform. He
demands that the unconstitutional act of failing to restore student unions
must be corrected. Ammar emphasizes that student unions can play a vital
role in nation building too. His long and comprehensive article is full of
credible information. He has quoted various research studies like in 2008
53 percent of parliamentarians from Punjab were from dynastic political
families. Ammar at some point is biased but talks about positivity that the
student unions can bring.

 Amjad, Ameen. “Sindh becomes first province to end ban on student

unions.” University World News, 25 Feb, 2022.
 Ameen Amjad Khan is an editor at UWN. In his article he says that
students in Pakistan have been protesting for the restoration of student
unions. In a recent development on 11 Feb Sindh assembly passed a bill
to unban student unions. Sindh province, which became the first to
reinstate student unions through a bill passed by the provincial assembly
on 11 February 2022. The Sindh bill was supported by opposition parties
in the House and welcomed by students across. Ameen also focuses that
how the absence of student unions has affected the campuses. PPP
member of the National Assembly, Shazia Marri, told University World
News: “The absence of student unions has led to a rise in harassment cases
in universities and has stifled freedom of expression leading to violence at
campuses.”In the absence of a student voice, cases of harassment are often
decided against the complainant. The banning of student unions also led to
pan-Islamic religious trends on campuses and a rise in extremism and
intolerance at universities in Pakistan.He was accused of blasphemy which
later proved a baseless allegation. The article has been very useful as it
specifically talks about on campus harassment issues after the ban of
student unions. Ameen has a very sound thinking and backs his claims
with pure evidence.

4
  F. Paracha, Nadeem. “Student politics in Pakistan: A celebration, lament
and history” DAWN, 3 July, 2014.
 Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn
Newspaper and Dawn.com. He is also the author of two books on the
social history of Pakistan, End of the Past and The Pakistan Anti-Hero.
Nadeem in his paper says that Zulfiqar Bhutto who rose as a popular
leader in 1966 was galvanized by college and university students. At that
time Zulfiqar refused to associate his party with any student union who
were opposing Ayub khan like NSF. In Bhutto’s point of view student
politics was a highly mutable and volatile creature. The first student
organization was MSF (Muslim student federation). It was formed to
assist recruiting students and young Muslims to achieve its goal of
attaining a separate homeland. In 1950 at DOW Medical college some
students formed Democratic Students Federation (DSF). In 1953 DSF
drew up “Charter of Demands” to address educational concerns of
students. DSF protested against the government move towards west. DSF
got banned and students were arrested. After that pro government NSF
was formed but soon its ideology changed, then in 1958 Ayub banned the
organization. Nadeem has comprehensively talked about the student
unions history. He has provided solid evidence as it can be seen that
Quaid e Azam supported MSF and held talks with students.

 Amir, Nasir. “History of Student Politics and Its Revival in Pakistan”

Punjab University.
 Nasir Amir say in his paper that the idea has grown that students' political
inclinations impede them from participating in academic activities.
Atrocities, torture, kidnapping, and murder are promoted by political
movements among students. These were the causes that prompted
General Zia-ul-Haq to declare a ban on political activities on university
campuses. Between 1977 and 1988, it became a state narrative. Following
that, a counter narrative was created to justify student politics. However,
excessive political intervention by political parties in student politics and
severe rules enacted by university administrations did not allow them to
thrive. Efforts to resurrect student unions have been underway for a few
months. This paper examines those efforts in the context of a student
solidarity march, as well as the pushback that the participating students
and their teachers faced. This paper explains a lot of things that happened
in the past. This adds a lot of credible information to the research.

5
  Ullah, Hashmat. Zaman, Shamsuz. “Prospects and Implications of
StudentsPolitics in Educational Institutions of Pakistan” IDEA
Publishers. Nov 19, 2020.
 Hashmat and Shamsuz in their research article examine the issues of
student politics in educational institutions and to learn about their
possibilities and repercussions. This is a significant phenomenon that
plays a critical role in democratic countries like Pakistan. Student politics
is a significant study topic. There are numerous underlying questions,
such as what is the significance of student politics and what are its
prospects? What are the ramifications of this? Why does it lead to
violence, and how can it be avoided and made more result-oriented?
Because students are the leaders of tomorrow, student politics in
educational institutions in democratic countries such as Pakistan is a
significant phenomenon. It has numerous advantages, such as the fact that
most of the mainstream top seed politicians are the result of student
politics, offering educated and well-trained political leaders and
employees, and strengthening the political system However, it has a
number of ramifications, such as student unions acting as pressure
groups, organizing strikes and marches, using force against opposing
groups, spending students' valuable time in off-campus events, drinking,
and the development of a weapon culture. This is a qualitative study that
employs critical discourse analysis, descriptive, and analytical methods.

 Shah, F. A. (2018). Cultural diversity in a public sector university of

Pakistan : Exploring students' perceptions and experiences (Unpublished
master's dissertation). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
 In terms of languages, clothes, beliefs, meals, traditions, and ethnicity,
Pakistan boasts a vast cultural diversity. However, due to a number of
factors, Pakistan has been unable to use it to promote mutual respect,
peaceful coexistence, and the promotion of peace in society, and hence
has been forced to confront serious concerns of cultural diversity. The
purpose of this study was to learn about the experiences and perspectives
of public university students in Karachi, Pakistan, on cultural diversity.
The study used semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and
observation for data collection and triangulation, with a
phenomenological bent, focused on the four overarching aspects of
gender, language, ethnicity, and religion. Cultural variety is critical for
every country's development and academic accomplishment, according to
the conclusions of the study. The study also found that there are relatively
few co-curricular activities at the institution in which girls are not
encouraged to participate. Non-native speakers confront difficulties that
6
 cause them to be apprehensive in giving presentations and sharing their
ideas. The kids' interaction is also a challenge because they are unable to
explain their ideas to one another. As a result, they join multiple student
unions based on sects, languages, and ethnicity. Faculty members have a
bias towards adopting proper terminology to encourage cultural diversity
at the university. In addition, faculties are failing to meet the different
demands of students. Due to linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity,
the students are also not accepting of one another. The participants in the
study also agreed that there are no effective co-curricular activities to
foster cultural variety, and it is advised that each department be held
responsible for organizing diversity workshops and seminars each
semester. According to the findings, promoting cultural diversity on
campus is critical for improving the university environment and students'
academic performance.

 Rehman, Abdul. Farooq, Ayesha. “Social and Political Dynamics of

Higher Education in Pakistan” Punjab University Journal.
 The purpose of this work is to investigate the formal academic training
and learning system that is used in secondary education and is referred to
as higher education. Higher education has a social and political impact on
people, and the socio-political dynamics of education have an impact on
society as a whole. History shows that students have played an important
part in a variety of political activities. Students have been torchbearers for
the Pakistan cause and have remained politically active even after the
country’s independence. Higher education has social dynamics because it
equips people to think critically about and question their social
conditions. It informs them of their rights and responsibilities. People can
distinguish between right and bad with the help of education. As a result
of all of this, they grow more socially conscious and have a better
understanding of the world. Their own perspectives on current and future
events It urges that the government seek to ensure that higher education is
available to all citizens of the country. This will not only improve their
human qualities, but it will also instill principles of a responsible citizen,
which will benefit the country. This paper is very unique and informative
as it talks about the social dynamics higher education in Pakistan.