The Sindh government on Wednesday announced that it will restore unions in Sindh, after the students’ protests in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. Sindh became the first province in Pakistani to restore unions after they were banned in 1984 by the military dictator Zia-ul-Haq.
According to the details, the Baloch Students Action Committee, Karachi Students Alliance and other major student bodies organized a protest in Karachi against the ban on student unions. Student unions have been banned in Pakistani for the past 38 years. They were outlawed by Zia-ul-Haq in 1984. In Sindh, the unions were banned five years earlier, in 1979.
A large number of students marched on the streets in Karachi, Larkana, Hyderabad, Lahore and Islamabad, demanding the restoration of student unions. In Karachi, the students gathered placards and banners and chanted slogans against the ban on student unions.
The Progressive Student Federation, a large student body, organized protests in Islamabad on Monday. A large number of students marched on the roads towards the National Press Club and demanded the restoration of student unions.
The military dictatorship headed by General Zia-ul-Haq banned student unions in 1984 with the pretext of preventing violence between the left and right-leaning groups in the varsity campuses throughout Pakistan. But there are differing opinions – some also believe that America, in exchange for giving Pakistan F-16 fighter jets, demanded the ban on student bodies to strangle the student-led grassroots democracy in Pakistan.
Soon after the protests in Karachi and other major cities of Pakistan, the Sindh government became the first provincial government to lift the ban on student unions. The government announced the restoration, saying that students will be allowed to form unions in any university throughout Sindh and these unions will comprise of 7 to 11 members. The bill restoring the student unions was passed in the Provincial Assembly of Sindh.