Staff Reporter
Following the nationwide protests to demand repealing ban on students unions, Progressive Students Federation (PrSF) and Students Action Committee (SAC) organized the Students Solidarity March in Karachi. Students representing Progressive Students Federation including Zahabia, Waqas, Laila, Ghazi among others led the march from Regal Chowk to Karachi Press Club.
Along with Women Democratic Front, RDF, organizations representing various universities, students from many educational institutes of the city participated in the march.
All the participants actively took part in the rally through revolutionary sloganeering and singing poems.
Addressing the March student leader and organizer PrSF, Zahabia Khozema took the stage to convey how turning education into a profit seeking business is destroying the critical aspect of knowledge. Tuitions costs have inflated to such levels that it has far surpassed what working class people can ever afford, she said.
Students leader and organizer from PRSF, Waqas Alam, further touched on issues including sexual harassment, lack of residential facilities, privatization of education, enforced disappearances, lack of adequate food facilities, and incessant increases in fees.
He said that all of these issues are effecting the day to day experiences of millions of students in Pakistan. However, there is no one from the government who is even ready to address the concerns that such an important section of our society faces. On the other hand, the same governmental institutions who apparently represent students are increasingly active when it comes to curbing student’s voices when they try to raise their concerns.
All participants of the Students Solidarity March were unanimous in their support of the following demands: Education based on class system should be abolished.
The ban on student union should be lifted. The recent increase in fees should be withdrawn and there would be no increase for the next five years.
The intervention of security forces in educational institutions must stop immediately and politically motivated cases on students should be withdrawn and such students must be released immediately.
