LAHORE: About three dozen Baloch students reached Chichawatni on Tuesday during their long march towards Islamabad started from Multan on Oct 10.

These members of the Baloch Students Council, mainly from Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, are holding the march towards the federal capital to press the Punjab and Balochistan governments to accept their demands, including restoration of their scholarships. Most of them are students of the BS and Master’s programmes of the BZU, Multan that asked them to submit fee after the provincial governments stopped their funding. Their demands include restoration of the scholarships for Baloch students in other universities of Punjab like the Punjab University, Lahore, Islamia University of Bahawalpur, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, and withdrawal of the fee notification issued to them.

The Baloch students started the long march after the university and the governments didn’t pay attention to them after their 40-day long sit-in in Multan.

Talking to Dawn from Iqbal Nagar, 10km from Chichawatni, where the marchers were staying for the night, Arsalan Baloch, the chairman of the Baloch Students Council of the BZU, said they had started their march four days back after being given a cold shoulder by the government during their sit-in at Multan.

“The funding for our scholarships was stopped during the Covid-19 lockdown when the universities were shut. We demand both the Punjab government and Balochistan government to restore our scholarships,” said Arsalan, a student of 7th semester of BS Political Science at the BZU. He said they walked 25 to 35km per day while take rest during the night. On Tuesday, the walked for 40km. The protesting students are heading towards Islamabad via Lahore.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2020