ISLAMABAD: Students and left-leaning parties have vowed to build strong and long-lasting connections with students and youth across the country to resist the ongoing “corporatisation” of education and the anti-people capitalist system in all spheres of society.

Scores of students from across the twin cities’ educational institutions as well as several delegates of other progressive and left-leaning parties gathered on Saturday at the National Press Club for the Students Action Conference organised by the Progressive Students Federation Islamabad-Rawalpindi (PrSF Isb-Rwp).

Fatima Shahzad, general secretary of the federation, hosted the sessions. There were three panels in the conference.

The first panel, titled, ‘A Critical Analysis of Single National Curriculum’ was moderated by PrSF unit secretary Mohsin Mudassir and addressed by nuclear physicist and activist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, feminist leader and organiser of the Women Democratic Front Tooba Syed, and academic researcher and analyst Tahir Naeem Malik.

The second panel titled ‘Climate Crisis and Flood Affected Students’ was moderated by PrSF member Wajdan Iqbal and addressed by Baba Jan, leader of Awami Workers Party (Gilgit- Baltistan), Dr Ahsan Kamal and Saidal Khan Mandokhail from Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU).

The third panel titled ‘Student Politics in 21st Century’ was moderated by secretary information of PrSF, Shahalam Tariq and addressed by Dr Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, deputy general secretary of Awami Workers Party (AWP), Dr Ammar Ali Jan, general secretary Haqooq-i-Khalq Party and Mustafa Tariq Wynne, student leader (PrSF).

The speakers provided a more detailed analysis on the subject of ecological catastrophe as well as climate disasters, integral to the future of young people, their very lives and existence.

They said in these past few months, around 33 million people in Pakistan had been displaced by floods and many have had to face great financial issues.

They said the individuals most badly affected were working class students who belonged to the peripheries, whose families either lost their livelihoods or were greatly affected financially, so much so that they had to fully rely on aid to survive.

The climate question and how it relates to politico-economic structures not only on a local but also a global context of both imperialism and the capitalist mode of production is therefore central to our understanding of this crisis and how to counter it.

Speaking on the occasion Fatima Shahzad highlighted that students across Pakistan have been systematically weaned off progressive politics since the Zia dictatorship, and displaced by “violent and bigoted state-sponsored thugs”.

The standard of education has declined drastically and the class education system has further exacerbated inequality in education which carries forward to the job market, she said.

Mr Mudassir talked about how students are forced to sign an affidavit while enrolling at higher educational institutions that they will not partake in any political activity, thus alienating them from the affairs of the wider society.

In this regard, Shahalam Tariq demanded that the state lift the ban on student unions which has been upheld by the Supreme Court since 1993.

Mr Wynne said the only alternative for the youth is to organise a revolutionary struggle against the systems that perpetuate and thrive on this exploitation, prioritising their greed, above, and at the cost of the fundamental rights to education, health, housing, and recreation of the all of Pakistan’s people.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2022