THE ticking time bomb that is Pakistan’s young and increasingly rudderless population is begging for our attention. This was underlined in sensational and violent fashion this past week at the university where I teach.

The clash between Baloch and Pakhtun students — with the former getting the short end of the stick — shows how far we are from the progressive unity needed to break free of the suffocating game of thrones between generals, judges and selected politicians that dominate mainstream politics. Such clashes are not new and illuminate how deeply the politics of hate has penetrated our society. When youth drawn to ostensibly progressive articulations of ethnic nationalism end up targeting one another, it is axiomatic that the establishment-centric order faces no major challenge, no matter how much it is wracked by internal contradictions.

It wasn’t always like this. Student unions were amongst the most vibrant forms of political organising until criminalised during the Zia dictatorship. The regime allowed the Islami Jamiat-i-Tulaba (IJT) free rein on many campuses, but some ethnic-nationalist and left student groups still kept the flame of progressive politics alive.

In the four decades since, pockets of progressivism have survived but parochialism is the norm. The IJT remains the most organised of student groups, retaining a virtual monopoly over crucial campuses like Punjab University, often reflected in its capacity for violence. Other politically affiliated groups exist in pockets, with ethnic-nationalists most prominent.

Most young people remain wary of organised politics.

The IJT and others of its ilk have always espoused a reactionary agenda. But many student groups that lay claim to progressive principles have become barren. Remember that the lynching of Mashal Khan by a mob of students in Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, included those who at least rhetorically claimed to be affiliated with ethnic-nationalist parties.

This disjunct between stated ideology and actual conduct is no coincidence. As per the Zia regime’s enforced logics of control and patronage, faculty and administrative authorities till this day deploy a carrot-and-stick policy towards any organising. Student groups are given a long leash where it suits the interests of patrons in the university administration. But they are also criminalised whenever they articulate even an inkling of autonomy.

The Sindh government recently announced that it is reviving student unions, but nothing has materialised. To grant students the opportunity to engage in a genuinely democratic exercise of electing their own representatives is a first step towards redressing the lopsided relationship between administrators and students. It will not immediately arrest the propensity of existing groups towards parochial herd behaviour and turf wars, but it is an absolutely essential step.

Unions will also address a huge gap with regard to representativeness of existing student groups. Women are largely excluded from what currently stands in for student politics. While some are given some representation in established groups like the IJT and ethnic-national councils, this is largely tokenism.

More generally, even male students tend to disassociate themselves with existing student organisations. This is partly a legacy of the Zia years, when an affidavit was introduced which all newly enrolled students in colleges and universities were compelled to sign, disavowing involvement in any political activity. But quite aside from this formality, most young people in Pakistan remain wary of organised politics, even if one accounts for the fillip provided to otherwise demobilised youth in mainstream Pakistan by the Imran Khan messiah show that is the PTI. Indeed, many students argue against student politics, often conflating the prevailing character and conduct of student groups with the practice of directly electing representatives to student unions.

What many of these students tend not to consider, like many young people across this country, is that every one of us who resorts to sifarish and rishwat to get things done is engaging in patronage politics. There can and must be other ways of thinking and doing politics, including what the left has always stood for — that the state redress class, ethnic-national, gender and religious privilege by guaranteeing universal public services. This is a long-term horizon, but during the heyday of student unionising between the 1950s and 1970s, the existence of such horizons shaped politics at all levels of society. Young people are today the vast majority of our population. They must be given the chance to learn what democracy looks like, especially in institutions of higher education where we are supposedly cultivating our next generation of leaders.

The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2023