Dr. Sohail Mehmood
Pakistani universities are plagued with violence of a complex nature. It manifests itself in many forms and for a number of reasons. In some cases it is political while in others it is primarily ethnic. Whatever its nature, on-campus violence is one of the reasons why the overall academic performance is pathetic at our universities and other higher-education institutions.
Perhaps the worst example of this is Punjab University, where the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, the youth wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, has been dominant since the 1980s. The recent beating up of Dr Iftikhar Hussain Baloch, chairman of the university’s disciplinary committee, by Jamiat students has been widely condemned. The Pakistan Federation of University Academic Associations launched a protest movement against the incident.
In a similar incident in February registrar Ubaid Ranjha of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), a retired brigadier, beat up faculty member Tahir Malik. The strong reaction around the country against the violence ultimately led to Mr Ranjha’s dismissal. Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam University has seen ugly incidents of ethnic violence, in which lives were lost. Ethnic violence has also been witnessed at Karachi
University, as well in other universities in Sindh, and in Balochistan and NWFP.
Pakistani universities do not have peace because they are wracked by politics. The penetration of Punjab University by the Jamaat-e-Islami did not happen by chance. This entry of the Jamiat there was a part of the Jamaat’s ideology which aims at creating a new Islamic state in Pakistan for the transformation of the country’s society on the Jamaat’s own model. Apart from its electoral politics, the Jamaat believes in capturing institutions from within through effective activism. There have been similar attempts by the Jamiat at Karachi University.
It is not only the Jamaat that is involved in student politics, however. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sought, and received, students’ support for his Islamic socialism movement in the late 1960s. Later, the Left was pitched against the Right in Punjab University. This polarisation of student politics, faculty, and administration, and the resulting violence, was the dominant phenomenon of student politics during the 1970s.
After Mr Bhutto’s execution in 1979, the military regime of Gen Zia-ul-Haq pandered to the Jamaat-e-Islami and sought its help in building a political force against the PPP. It is for this purpose alone that Gen Zia supported the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba during the early years of his rule, and in turn received support from the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Later, the Jamaat turned against Gen Zia for various reasons. But by now the Jamiat-e-Talaba had became entrenched in Punjab University, receiving support not only from the student but also the faulty and administration.
It was primarily Gen Zia’s politics of isolating the PPP by supporting the party’s ideological rivals like the Jamaat that sowed the seeds of violence at the university. In November 2007, Tehrik-e-Insaaf leader Imran Khan was roughed up by Jamiat students during a visit to the Punjab University campus.
Universities and colleges have prospered in the developed countries because the institutions have taken effective measures to ensure peace and thereby make the environment conducive to learning and research. The United States rose to become the pre-eminent power it is because of its emphasis on higher education. In other words, the strength of the United States is derived from its educational institutions. American universities, considered some of the best in the world, are islands of peace.
For the same reason, Japan is an excellent example of how a nation which had been backward not much before the advent of the 20th century became a global leader in higher education. Japan is the second-biggest economy in the world.
China is now focusing on building a world-class university system. Even India, which now boasts a number of world-class universities, has achieved excellence in important disciplines like engineering and technology.
Reforms are urgently needed for the improvement of standards in Pakistani educational institutions. But before Pakistan embarks on a meaningful process of educational reforms, it will have to rid its universities and colleges of violence. We really have little choice in the matter.
Let all political parties sign a new compact whereby they pledge to ensure that peace prevails on our campuses. Let this matter be debated by them openly and dispassionately. In fact, a new civil society movement will have to be launched for the attainment of the objective of violence-free educational institutions in Pakistan.
The writer is a professor at NUML. Email: mahmood.sohail@gmail.com
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