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Students plan massive protest against emergency
Lahore, Nov 07, 2007: Students of various educational institutions are
planning massive protest campaign against the proclamation of the state of
emergency and police torture and arrests of hundreds of lawyers, youngsters and
rights activists across the country, it was learnt on Tuesday.
The
move is being planned after the arrest of around 30 members of the Youth
Parliament - a non-government organisation working for the empowerment of young
people and democracy in the country.
A senior official of the Youth
Parliament seeking anonymity said that students from various
educational institutions were planning to protest on multiple levels. He said
students would not only protest separately at their institutions but also stage
a demonstration on The Mall or some significant place with in a couple of days.
He said students from public and private universities including the Punjab
University, the University of ngineering and Technology, the Government College
University, the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), University
College Lahore (UCL), Lahore School of Economics and other educational
institutions would participate in the demo. He said students at LUMS and some
other educational institutions were already protesting over the imposition of
emergency while they have also called on a protest demonstration of the same
series on Wednesday evening (tomorrow) at their main campus. Around 30 of the
Youth Parliament members, including student leaders, were arrested when they
were protesting outside the Lahore High Court. He said police baton charged all
the students before they were arrested. Police, however, released girls it had
arrested, he added. He said police had arrested students, including Ali Raza
Shah, Mehmood Agha, Yasir Ali, Anjum, Sarah, Imtinan, Kaila, Aleena, Hassaan and
many others. He said these students were in detention at police stations in
Ichhra, Baghbanpura and other localites. He said students have informed their
families that police had tortured them and that they were being kept at police
stations in miserable conditions.
He said those who were organising the
protest were keeping their names secret otherwise police would arrest them and
sabotage the campaign which they thought was more important than any things
else. He said Pakistan had a strong history of student protests and it were the
students who came on the streets and forced powerful dictatorial governments to
change their minds. Students were planning similar protests again, he
added.
He said the current and previous governments had left no stone
unturned to mum the voices of youth either by banning student unions in the
country or by exploiting them for their own political agendas. The current
generation of youth was more educated than ever and they not only knew their
rights but also knew how to clinch them from a dictator.
Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan chairperson Asma Jahangir and Vice-Chairperson Hina
Jilani have strongly condemned the arrest of students while urging the community
to rise up against the dictatorship in the country.
HRCP chairperson Asma
Jahangir and Vice-chairperson Hina Jilani said that the government was
committing a blunder by dragging students into the issue as no government was so
powerful as to resist a youth movement. Both rights activists said that the
commission will also take up the matter to the concerned national and
international platforms. - The News
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