Daily Times

I have spent most of my working life conducting capacity building sessions as the jargon goes.  What am I building, whose capacity is all in haze? I just know that I get to travel across Pakistan, exchange numbers with random people who then send me ‘Juma Mubarak’messages.

This cycle of living happily ever after was broken last weekend.  It started off as a mundane activity.  Leadership course for new leaders read the banner.  Yawn! I tried to muster up energy, thought of fun activities to get the young people to do while keeping my eye on the clock. For God forbid, if I were to go a single second more than the client was paying me for.

I was in for a surprise. The audience consisted of 30 young men and women belonging to different political parties of Karachi.  I gulped as they, in their introductions, cited various political parties. This won’t go well, I thought with the MQM and Pak Sarzameen Party in one room discussing new techniques of political leadership.

I was wrong. What a roller coaster fun ride it was. The discussion among the people taught me more about political leadership, pragmatism and co-existence than I could ever imagine.  The beauty was that all of them disagreed with each other and cracked jokes but we managed to learn more from each other than I could ever imagine.

I understand now why youth politics is regarded as a nursery of future leaders.Probably because of the highly charged political climate of the city and the fact these parties have invested a lot in training their youth wings.  Given the spirit of competition, other parties in the province had also invested much in their youth when compared to other parts of the country.

The demon of the Zia regime still haunts us in many ways through extremism and regressive legislations. The rotten cherry of this bad cake is the ban on student unions. The previous federal regime did try to overturn but remained unsuccessful.

When it comes to political training, Punjab University Lahore is one of the worst. Students representing Pashtuns and the Islami Jamhuri Taleba (IJT), the Jamaat e Islami’s student wing clashed with each other that resulted in several people being injured.IJT has been active in the various public universities across the country since Pakistan’s inception. Although student politics is formally banned, yet the IJT holds much clout. If I am not wrong, it receives support from the campus administration for carrying out its agenda.

A similar clash was also reported from Gomal University in Dera Ismail Khan. However, this time the opposite happened, as it was the Pashtun group which attacked an IJT event.

My intention behind describing these two events is to prove that student politics hasn’t returned.

Back in the days when student politics was widespread, youth were considered as a force to be reckoned with. More importantly, student unions provided a balancing act in politics. There were several leftist student unions such as the National Students Federation (NSF), Democratic Students Federation (DSF), and Muslims Students Federation (MSF). They not only groomed the future political class of the country but also balanced the impact created by the right-wing student unions like the IJT.

Student unions provide a once in a life time opportunity to new entrants in universities to learn about the basics of politics, which is quite important for grooming. It promotes a healthy competition among students and allows them to compete each other without resorting to violence. Banning these unions resulted in more violence at campuses.

The lack of good governance today is not just the result of corrupt politicians but a lack of political education as well. Student unions train students in the process of good governance and administration at micro levels, which they can later practice once they enter professional lives. The overall modern political landscape clearly indicates that there is a dearth of political training.

It is good to witness democracy flourish in the country again. However, the real impact would only be visible if student unions get restored.

What I witnessed in Karachi was the result of political grooming and training. Just imagine if these students had a chance to be formally part of recognised student unions.

The writer is a development consultant. She tweets at @GulminaBilal and can be reached at coordinator@individualland.com