Chapter 10

Chapter 10




STUDENTS MOVEMENT
IN PAKISTAN




History of January 1953 Student movement. 1

Compiled by National Students Federation (Pakistan)
Dedicated to January 8, 1953 martyrs.

“We were ambushed in dark alleys” a line from a poem by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, unarguably the leading progressive muse of Urdu in the twentieth century.

Preface and Background

During their two hundred years rule over India, the British colonizers had, among other self-serving measures had introduced an education system, which would cater to their administration. In spite of the pervading miasma, movement for Human rights, liberty and social justice grew among the populace and was nurtured by the youth.
In the last five decades of foreign rule students emerged as a credible force for change. Post WWI the vibrant movement for independence found a resonance among thousands of students. Students organized groups and unions in colleges and universities through the Indian sub-continent, but an organization at the national level could emerge only in the third decade of twentieth century
In August 1936 an all India Students conference was held in Lucknow (UP). Pandit Nehru inaugurated the moot, and M.A.Jinnah presided over it. Nine hundred eighty six delegates chosen by two hundred local and eleven provincial student bodies participated in the deliberations. All India Students Federation (AISF) was founded during the conference. In his welcome speech, Reception committee Chairman, Prem Bhargva stated that though AISF was not beholden to any politely campaign, unless our educational institutions have adapted creation of fellow travelers of the colonial administration, we will inevitably get involved in the struggle for independence.
Three months after the initial conference, another meeting was held in Lahore, (Punjab). Sarat Bose presided over this moot. Bose in his presidential address dwelt at length on analysis of the political upheaval in the country and what he thought the role of students was. He exhorted the audience to embed intellectual activism in working class and proletariat movements. This session also approved a constitution of AISF.
AISF held its sixth session in Nagpur (CP, now MP) on December 25, 1940. The agenda of this conference was to chart a line of action and policy against the colonial rule. Majority of delegates advocated a more militant stance against British rule than favored by Indian National Congress (INC) under Gandhi. Dr Ashraf, a revolutionary leader branded “Satyr Graham”-passive resistance offered by Gandhi a week reed response to the aggressive control of the colonial power. Disagreeing with the prevalent opinion and after failure to evolve a common platform, the section, which favored INC, seceded from the main body and held a separate session under the leadership of M.L.Shah and Aurobindoo Ghosh and formed All India Students congress. (AISC).
AISF gained further strength from the struggle and under the led by Dr Ashraf and M.Mukerjee emerged as a credible player in the struggle for independence and remained active in post independence days. In 1947 its membership was 74,000.
In 1937 All India Muslim league (AIML) held a session in Lucknow. In addition to reorganization and expansion work, it changed its political posture and demanded complete independence for India. All India Muslim Students Federation was also launched in this session. It held its first conference in December 1938 at Calcutta (Bengal). M.A.Jinnah presided over the session and Raja Amir Muhammad of Mahmoodabad was elected the President.
Students played a vital and historic role in the movement for establishment of Pakistan. They reflected the yearning of the public not only for shedding the burden of foreign rule but also demanded Human rights and Social justice.
At the time of partition the number of educational institution in West Pakistan (now all of Pakistan was limited to Punjab University (1882), Government college, Hailey college, Dayal Singh and Sanatan Dharam College (current MAO college), DAV college (current Islamia college, civil lines) and Islamia college Railway road all in Lahore, and Murray college in Sialkot, DJ Science college (1887, SM Arts college (1943), SM Science college (1945) Dow Medical college (1945) and Sind University (now Karachi University-1945) all in Karachi.
Before partition Hindu and Sikh students dominated the educational institutions in the Punjab. Immigrant students to the province found berths in schools and colleges easily. Sindh on the other hand did not experience whole scale exodus of non-Muslims and refugees inundated Karachi; its population quickly swelled from about two hundred thousand to twelve hundred thousand. Educational institutions could not hope to cope with the influx. Private institutions lacking physical structure, libraries, laboratories, or playgrounds mushroomed. They simply attempted to enable students to take examinations and obtain a degree. The system faced all kinds of problems.
In October 1947 the government of Pakistan (GOP) convened a high-powered educational conference in Karachi. Quaid Azam Jinnah, inaugurating the conference, declared that education and especially relevant education does not require emphasis; it was self-evident. During foreign domination for over a century adequate attention was not paid to public education. If we are to really develop at a fast pace we will have to give prime importance to education in our national agenda. Our education should not only reflect our history and culture but also pay due heed to progressive thought and economic and scientific progress. Our future will depend on how we educate and bring up our children. We must impart technical and scientific training to our people so that in future our trade and industry can obtain a scientific and technical base. We must not forget that the World is moving ahead very fast. We will have to keep pace. Our educational system has to impart concepts of honesty, honor and sincerer among our young people. An educational research center was established after the conference. Its mandate was to advise and guide the government on education policy. It got mired in sloth, inactivity
and indifference.
For lack of basic amenities in educational institutions students of Punjab and Sind were gradually getting restive. Muslim league had degenerated into internecine conflict over distribution of government ministries. Students could not escape the miasma of this self-centered politics. Muslim students federation (MSF) split into factions. And the groups became an appendage of league leaders who used the students unscrupulously. The federation lost credibility among the ranks of students. They faced vestiges of problems created by colonial dispensation and its creations the feudal and bureaucratic systems. The vestiges pervaded all walks of life and controlled economic, political and social life.
The educational system had been created to provide clerical and subordinate staff to assist colonial rulers to tighten their grip on India. It had not offered any thing but despair, hopelessness and unemployment.
The country had succumbed to wide spread corruption, nepotism and favoritism. The current face of Pakistan was not what people had aspired to; they had been let down with a thud. At the end of 1948, responding to this atmosphere of gloom, a few progressive students founded a small group in Lahore called Democratic Students Federation (DSF) DSF did not have a written or formal platform or agenda. It only aimed at amelioration of the educational and academic problems of students.
DSF participated in Union elections in different colleges and obtained a measure of success. For the next two to three years its activities remained confined to Lahore and Rawalpindi. Prominent among its leaders were Abid Manto in Rawalpindi and Naqvi (A nephew of A.T.Naqvi, the chief commissioner of Karachi) in Lahore. MSF maintained its simultaneous existence, but was not popular and remained in effective.
In Karachi DSF was formed first in Dow Medical College in 1950.
Post establishment of Pakistan feudal lords obtained control of the government, which became total after Liaquat; Jinnah’s designated heir apparent was assassinated in October 1951. In fact Jinnah himself and Liaquat had discouraged students participation in political life. They felt that student would better spend time in acquiring education and become good citizens. Their feudal successors had another agenda. They wanted students to behave like good children and train themselves as good servants of the ruling class. Whenever students agitated for their rights and demanded amenities, they were exhorted to refrain form politics. Pakistan had come into existence; there was no more reason to participate in public life. Those who did not toe the line were subjected to discrimination and torture at the hands of state security apparatus. A few sold themselves for a piece of gold.
MSF had disintegrated. Islami Jamiat e Talaba, the student wing of Jamaat e Islami formed in 1948, confined itself to proselytization and convened small gatherings in mosques. They were later to publish a few pamphlets.





Struggle of Bengali Students

Student movement in the then East Pakistan especially in Dhaka and other urban areas was much stronger. Bengal had been in the forefront of resistance to foreign rule. Students and public had a higher level of political and social consciousness.
The then East Pakistan had two popular student organizations-East Pakistan Students Federation and East Pakistan Students League. Educationists were mostly from the western wing and wanted to impose a system based on Urdu as the sole medium of instruction.
East Pakistanis reacted with vigorous hostility to the stipulation and vociferously demonstrated and agitated against it. They demanded parity for Bengali with Urdu as a state language.
Dhaka University Central Students Federation and East Pakistan Students Union led the campaign. The movement had the support of the middle class and activists hailed from middle and lower economic classes.
On February 22 1952 police opened fire on a group of Dhaka Medical college. Twenty-five students were killed and injured. Such a storm of protest, indignation and condemnation followed that the government surrendered and accepted the legitimate demand of Bengali as a state language.
It was the first time that a struggle against a repressive regime was spearheaded by a joint front of students and the public. It was the first episode of popular war against the establishment. The movement unfortunately engendered some misgivings in the leadership. A section believed that the mass struggle was in effective and a rash action by security forces sparked a protest, which led to the surrender of the government.
We have to learn important lessons here. We have to analyze the situation and prevailing conditions analytically and scientifically, so that we do not fall in the pit of mutual doubt again


In order to get a clear idea of student movement in Pakistan, we have to look at the religious make up of the educational institutions in the regions, which became East and West Pakistan.
On the western side, student activism sustained a grievous setback at the time of partition. An overwhelming majority of students were non-Muslim. Dow Medical College, Karachi was started in 1945. Only two out of the class of fifty were Muslims. A Muslim Students Federation was formed at the N.E.D Engineering College Karachi in 1947. Ahmad Khan Barakzai was the first President. I interviewed an activist of the time, Mr. Nooruddin Sarki, now a leading attorney of Karachi. After a brief mention of the federation he went on to enumerate the names of Karachi medical students of the time-M. Haroon, M Sarwar, and Rahman Hashmi-all immigrants, as the pioneers of the student’s movement.
Roughly the same proportion of Hindu-Muslim students obtained in the educational institutions in all provinces of West Pakistan- Sind, Baluchistan, NWFP and Punjab. Students in the region like elsewhere in India had participated in Independence movement and constituted the youth wing of INC (Indian National Congress). They left for India in 1947, leaving a vacuum among student activist ranks identical to that in all other socio-political fields.
Muslim refugees moved from East Punjab and elsewhere to the new country. Punjabis on both sides of the divide had borne the brunt of the worst excesses of partition. They had been robbed of all assets, dignity and honor and had barely escaped with life. Most had lost family members. They lived in refugee camps and other shelters, gradually settling down and occupying houses left by fleeing non-Muslims. The traumatic experience they had passed through was unprecedented in the annals of human history. All they wanted was to be left alone to pick up the pieces and live as normal a life as they could. They did not have the time, inclination or even the desire to indulge in movements, progressive or otherwise. It, therefore, took a long time for the young immigrants in the Punjab and the few among the locals to get together and plan for the future
Initially the youth wing of Maulana Maududi’s Jamaat e-Islam provided the only semblance of organized student life in the Punjab. But the party had opposed creation of Pakistan and lacked legitimacy. Maulana Sahib hailed from Indian Hyderabad, which had a vibrant communist movement. He appears to have been exposed to it and been influenced its discipline. In any case he gave a similar structure to his organization. The Student wing eschewed electoral politics, emphasizing acquisition of Islamic knowledge, character building, and prosetylization and was organized in groups and cells roughly on the pattern of the parent party.
In NWFP, the student wing of Khudai Khitmatgars (Servants of God) of Ghaffar Khan, a populist ascetic movement, popularly called red-shirts, because of the color of clothes they sported, had been discredited as they had sided with the losing side in the referendum held to decide if NWFP will join India or Pakistan. As the date of independence drew close pro-Pakistan sentiments took hold of people’s imagination here too. Khudai Khitmatgars had been for many years openly aligned with of INC. Ghaffar Khan echoed Gandhi in preaching non-violence and richly deserved the sobriquet; Frontier Gandhi
Baluchistan was the most feudal-tribal and least developed of the provinces in West Pakistan. As I have described else where, its only city Quetta, was totally dominated by non-Muslims in pre-independence days. In no walk of life- trade, business education, and government service could one find any Muslims. Except for a few Sardars who had houses in the city, Muslims lived in out of town mud houses. One such area was called Islamabad! In nineteen fifty-one there was only one indigenous teacher in the whole province. He was promoted to the ranks of Head Master, Inspector of Schools, Principal of the only college in the province and Director of Education with in a few years. All my teachers were immigrants.
Sind had had a vibrant body of student activists; its traditions went back to early twentieth century. The province was known for the cordial relations between its ethnic groups. It did not have any communal riots till nineteen forty-eight. In fact the Government is widely believed to have abetted disturbances in Karachi a year after partition to drive non-Muslims out, well after the early insanity had subsided. The conflict was between the immigrants and non-Muslims. Indigenous Sindhis did not take part in it. They in fact protected their non-Muslim compatriots when they could. A substantial percentage of Hindus actually stayed back in the interior of the province. The communist party of India, for some reason known only to them, “advised” the Hindu members to leave for India. To their credit, many including the best known Sobho Ramchndrani, and Pahumal Gianchandrani flouted the advice.
Compared to their Punjabi counterparts, Muslim refugees from India descending on Sindh had arrived relatively unscathed. They had walked into a land of opportunity. Clerks were promoted to managers, supervisors into high officials. Given the relatively intact, though depleted, cadre of activists into which the new arrivals easily merged, student movement in the western wing in early years was, for all practical purposes, confined to Karachi to which city refugees from India had gravitated in their millions. Students, mostly left wing in their leanings-because of family connections, indoctrination or chaotic conditions-launched a movement for better educational facilities such as decent classrooms, libraries, laboratories and reduction in fees and provision of textbooks free or at subsidized rates and above all the right to organize.
In Karachi too followers of Maulana Maududi kept a low profile. There were few any way and as elsewhere could not quite wash away the stigma of opposition to Jinnah. Their reformist views did not appeal to refugees bereft of all material possession. The latter wanted to overhaul the system, abolish privileges and lay the foundations of an egalitarian society. They wanted to launch a revolution and not indulge in uncertain gradualism.
A third component was students from Aligarh University. In early years they constituted the most influential group in Karachi University. Their philosopher and guide was the first V.C (Vice Chancellor) of the University of Karachi (KU) Professor A.B.A. Haleem. He was affectionately called Abba Haleem (Papa Haleem. This is a play of words on his initials). He had been pro-vice chancellor of Aligarh University and among his charges was student’s discipline. His detractors told a lot of funny stories about his disciplinary methods. Most were meant to ridicule the establishment. The V.C. was from Bihar. Beharis do not have the classic accent or pronunciation of Urdu words favored by purists from UP. It is a bit singsong .
We had considerable number of Hyderabadis too. They have a very distinct accent and pronunciation. It is actually a regional version of Urdu. They claim the distinction of the fist Urdu poet-Wali Dakhni. The few Punjabi students spoke Urdu (and English too), in Punjabi accent.
Urdu speakers, specially the ones from the erstwhile territory administered by the Nawabs of Oudh are terrible cultural and linguistic snobs. They looked down upon and made fun of all non-UP accents and mores. This patronizing attitude made them thoroughly disliked by all indigenous Pakistanis specially the Sindhis and Bengalis who had welcomed them with open arms. This alienation persists to the day.
Students in undivided Bengal were also in the forefront of the struggle for independence. If any thing, they were even more militant than their counter parts in the rest of the country. They were intellectually influenced by Tagore , Nazrul Islam and other progressive writers. In contrast to West Pakistan, a sizable number of Muslim students also participated in the campaigns and were to play a large role in the 1971 war of secession. And in contrast to the Western side, Hindus did not leave en-masse at the time of partition.
Because of historical circumstances, which are dealt with elsewhere, Hindus were, by and large, more educated and politically conscious. They controlled business, commerce and industry as their Western provinces counterparts did. Hindus constituted 15% of the population in East Pakistan, but occupied over sixty percent of positions in the fields of Education, Health, Law, business and other professions. They played a significant role in keeping progressive thought alive in Muslim Bengal. If the province had been 98% Muslim, it might have fallen in the clutches of obscurantism as the Western wing was destined to do.
After partition Pakistani Bengalis had, in the spirit of nascent nationalism, accepted the over lordship of non-Bengalis in the government at the center and domination of their business, commerce and administration in the province. But they were not prepared to accept a subsidiary status for their language. Jinnah, no doubt, from motives of using one language to cement national solidarity, had declared Urdu the only official language of Pakistan, as had Nehru and Patel for Hindi in India. As noted earlier Urdu, though spoken at home only by the immigrants from India who constituted less than five percent of the total population, was understood in all provinces, East and West. Bengali a rich and highly developed language, with millennia old historical heritage and internationally acclaimed writers, poets and philosophers, was spoken by 55% of the country’s population but was confined to East Pakistan. Bengalis were restive. They demanded that their language be accorded the same status as Urdu.
Jinnah made his first and last post independence visit to Dhaka in March 1948 and at a huge public meeting in Paltan Maidan, declared that Urdu and only Urdu would be the official and national language of Pakistan. No body dare challenge him as he was revered. People resented the declaration but heard him in silence, clapping and shouting Qaid –e- Azam Zindabad on a cue from organizers. He spoke only English; few understood him any way. Sheikh Mujeeb, a student leader at the time, to be the future leader of independence movement and founder president of Bangladesh, later claimed that he had led a black flag waving group of students and had actually been able to disturb Jinnah’s speech. That is hardly credible. The crowd would have lynched him. He did take out a small procession after Jinnah had flown back to Karachi.
Liaquat, first PM and heir apparent of Jinnah was to reiterate the declaration in 1951. He was booed and greeted with black flags. There were language riots, in 1952. Police fired on the crowds. Many were killed and more injured. The day is still commemorated in BD as Martyrs day.
Over all lead for the national students movement was, however, given by Karachi. Here the students had organized themselves into a party called Democratic students federation (DSF), a left leaning group, which was founded in 1950 in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad (then Lyallpur). Not to be outdone, Barkaat, Shafi, Sibghat and other school students formed a High school student federation (HSSF). Sarwar, then a medical student was the first president of DSF. Kazim followed him. Its headquarter was in room 29, Mitha Ram Hostel. Curiously enough, core of the leadership came from Dow Medical college, Karachi, which had more than its fair share of leftist students and continued to do so. Medical students have such a load of textbooks, lectures, and laboratory and hospital work, that in the West, they hardly find time to have regular sleep or even meals. But a tranquil Island cannot survive in a chaotic sea. But for students assured of a successful and affluent future was remarkable. Dow medical college produced such leaders as Sarwar, Haroon and and Hashmi. The college was also to produce arguably the most prominent of student leaders- Sher Afzal who figured prominently in student politics in late fifties to mid-sixties. Other colleges were not lagging far behind, though, bringing forth such stalwarts as Kazim, Adib Rizvi, Iqbal Naqvi, Wilayat, Rizwan Wasti, and Mazhar Saeed etc. They all spent time in jail, but went on to remarkable professional successes as well.
By late 1952, the movement had gathered sufficient strength to take on the government. Students took out processions, and led marches in Karachi on January 6,7,8/1953. National and International press gave them sympathetic coverage. Prime Minister Nazimuddin called the leaders to his official residence to meeting on January 7/1953 to discuss their demands. The education Minister Fazlur Rahman and senior officials of the ministry attended the moot. Students left the meeting with the impression that their demands had been accepted. In the official press release, however, agreement was denied. Enraged students went on a rampage and finding a car with an official flag on it parked in Saddar a posh commercial area, surrounded it. Its occupant turned out to be none other than the police minister Gurmani. The police panicked and attacked the students with tear gas. The minister succumbed to gas fumes and had to be carried away. By this time a mob had gathered. It put the car to torch and also looted some liquor shops and ammunition stores, brandishing captured guns to frighten the police. Police retaliated by opening fire on a group of students in front of Paradise Cinema in Saddar. (The building no longer houses a Cinema, most of the cinema houses in Karachi were converted/demolished to erect buildings, which were taken over mostly by electronic goods stores). Twenty-six students were killed Nainsuk Lal, a boy scout helping an injured striker, was the first fatal casualty. Several flags got soaked in blood. Public joined in the protest. Shopkeepers pulled the shutters down on places of business; buses were taken off the roads, offices unattended. The city was paralyzed and life came to a halt. Situation got out of the control of security agencies. The Government appealed to the students to help regain peace and calm. Kazim, the overall leader of the movement, generously and in national spirit, announced that the Government had accepted their demands. All leaders of opposition, trade unions, and even those of Jamaat e Islami condemned the police brutality. GOP, instead responding gratefully to Kazim’s gesture of good and considering student demand sympathetically, banned DSF and put student leaders in jail.
Eight of January was for many years commemorated as Martyrs day with meetings and a procession. One blood soaked flag was carried in the forefront.

Convening Committee of APSO

Repressive measures of the GOP could not quite suppress the movement. Student leaders from East and West Pakistan got together and gave a call for All Pakistan Students convention in December 1953. M. Sarwar was elected the Chairman of the convening committee. Delegates from colleges all over the country participated. Mateen and Khaliquzzaman came from East Pakistan. Punjab delegation was led by Abid Manto then of Rawalpindi. Alia Imam represented Indian students. She paid a heavy price for it, and ended up being deported from the country. Sind had the largest representation, reflective not just of contiguity, but of its politically conscious cadres alluded to earlier. It was led by Syed Mazhar Jamil, now a leading literary critic, art historian and attorney of Karachi. There was a delegation even from Government College Quetta, a veritable back waters. Kamil Qadri, a leftist student leader originally from Bihar, had ended up in the College and had been able to concoct a delegation. He even persuaded two female offspring of army officers to accompany him to Karachi. (While in jail he used to tease a Jamiat e leader mercilessly. The latter retuned the compliment by with a couplet
“ Kamilul Kadri Bihari Hain,
Aql o hosh o Khirad Se Aari Hain”
Kamil Kadri is from Bihar and is bereft of wisdom, awareness and insight. This was a slur not just on the person, but also on the province of his birth.
To coincide with Martyr’s day, convention dates were fixed in January 1954. Venue was Katrak Hall in Saddar . Messages of solidarity came from student bodies all over the world. Law minister AK Brohi agreed to be the Chief Guest. He came from a small Baluchi tribe and compared to other ministers, enlightened and progressive. He was an intellectual, and a bright star of the cabinet.
M.Sarwar, at the minister’s request, escorted him from his official residence to the meeting. The Chief Commissioner of Karachi had, in the meanwhile, imposed section 144 which proscribed gathering of more than four persons in public places. The pair arrived at the hall only to find the place in pandemonium. Gurmani, the police minister, (a big feudal lord, who was widely suspected of being involved in the assassination of the first PM Liaquat, along with Ghulam Muhammad and some of the top brass of the Army), was still smarting at the public humiliation of his car burnt to cinders and the ignominy of being carried away from the scene in less than edifying circumstances. His cabinet colleague Brohi, not withstanding, he had orchestrated disruption of the convention.
The administration had sent gangsters to subvert the proceedings. Police followed to “quell” the disorder. Both beat up the students, latter in more brutal fashion. School students were special targets, probably because they were smaller in size and could be punched and kicked with impurity. Prominent among the latter were Sibghat Kadri (now a Queens counsel in Britain), Wadood (Deputy Attorney General of Pakistan under Benazir in her first term of office), Saghir, Shafi and Barkaat. Hamza Khatoon, and Zarina were outstanding among the girls. They were all to distinguish themselves in their chosen walk of life.
Student leaders, wise in the ways of the police, had taken the precaution of organizing a defense squad led by no other than Adeeb Rizvi, later to distinguish himself for his work in Kidney diseases and founding the Sind Institute of Urology and Transplant (SIUT). Sher Afzal Malik, a medical student of Punjabi origin, but brought up in Peshawar, was a sort of “Red Guard” Lieutenant Commander of the security detail. He turned out to be, as we shall see later, the most notable new find of the convention. The guards saved many a life and limb. A gangster, who was later to become a respectable small traders union leader, was blocked in the nick of time from throwing a girl from an upper floor balcony.
The student volunteers somehow managed to control the situation for long enough to enable Brohi to conclude his address to the convention, but rest of the proceedings had to be moved to Model school premises in Pakistan Chowk. The convention passed a resolution to form All Pakistan Students Organization (APSO), elected M.Sarwar as the General Secretary General and Iqbal a right-winger as the President. Numerous student organizations in small and large towns of all the provinces of West Pakistan decided to merge with it. Bengali delegates pledged that they would seek the approval of their groups to do the same. .
Reacting to police and gangster brutality enraged students spread all over the city. Press and public again supported them. Police dare not take overt action so bloodshed was avoided. But many students were arrested and spent months in jail. Student movement was, though, coerced into animated suspension. Pakistan joined Western Security organizations in 1954 and by a queer coincidence (or design) APSO was also banned about the same time.
I was in Quetta from 1951 to 1951, blissfully ignorant and unaware of the activities of the activities of students in other parts of the country. Quetta was a conservative, provincial cantonment town, for whose denizens Karachi was a hedonistic, effete and immoral “foreign” city. Baluchistan was
(And continued to be) dominated by tribal Sardars. They did not did not encourage education. In later years, they actually harassed teachers, forced schools in their territory to shutdown, would not allow construction of any such building in their area, and prevented even roads from being built in their fiefdoms. Teachers have a rough time in the hinterland of the province .
Baluchistan, at the time was roughly divided in to a Baluch dominated area, and a Pathan area. Baluchis spread towards Karachi, and Pathans towards Afghanistan. Pathans were somewhat more advanced than the Baluchis. Quetta had a civilian section and a cantonment area, both dominated by Punjabis. The civilian population was roughly 35% Baluchis, 35% Pathans, 20% Punjabis and 10% others. Pathans, in sharp contrast to all other nationalities in West Pakistan, have an egalitarian society. Once a Pathan friend in Quetta invited me to a dinner. It was taken for granted that my driver would sit down on the floor with us for the meal).
After qualifying the FSC (twelfth grade) examination, I could not get into a medical school, because I was short of the minimal acceptance age. For reasons I have gone into earlier, I ended up in Karachi university department of Chemistry in BSC honors (three year degree course).
I had been catapulted from the very somnolent and unsophisticated milieu of Quetta to the vibrant, wild, and tumultuous city of Karachi. Quetta had a population of 80,000 in summer and 60,000 in winter. No body was ever in a hurry. People walked or bicycled to offices, schools, hospitals, or businesses. The center of social life was the posh shopping center on Jinnah Road, where nearly all students, teachers, professors, doctors and office workers strolled in the evening, and congregated in teahouses and parks in the area. Evenings in summer were delightful. We were all very provincial in our manners, attitude and speech. Karachi, in contrast, was a city of several million. Close to a million slept on footpaths. About two million lived in Jhuggis- straw and mud huts, which had sprouted all over the city. Luckier ones shared ten or more to a tiny apartment. Though there did exist colonies as far-flung as Malir and Landhi, going to the newly built Cricket stadium was an adventure. It stood in solitary splendor, in the middle of nowhere.
Most of the college and university students had full time jobs. The city gave an overall impression of a huge transient refugee camp, on a march to an uncertain destination. There was surprisingly little bitterness or depression, though people lacked all amenities. Water was scarce, and food limited. Even toilets were communal. But it had a vibrant intellectual life. Students, journalists, leftist, rightists, political activists and aspiring political leaders all congregated in numerous coffee houses and indulged in endless discussions on every topic under the son over a cup of tea which would last hours. Waiters, many of whom were students themselves, would ignore the owner’s orders to ask the customers to order more tea. Socio-political issues dominated. The city was peaceful. If one could not get a bus due to the late hour, walking was no hazard.
The establishment was very paternalistic unless you demanded your rights or were branded a leftist. Karachi was the Federal capital, ruled by a very powerful I.C.S. officer A.T. Naqvi who was the chief commissioner of the city. He had his office in a barrack in Sadder.
National students federation (NSF) had been a parallel moderate/right wing student body. It had been totally eclipsed by DSF. Second-generation student leaders Wadood, Sibghat and others negotiated with NSF- Sher Afzal was still only a strong-arm man- and a merger meeting was convened in early 1955 in an apartment in a building in Moulvi Musafar Khana off Bunder road. Some 50-60 students attended, almost equally divided between left-wingers and moderates. A coalition was worked out. To my utter surprise I was offered joint Secretary ship. I was not quite ready for the commitment and declined the honor on the rather lame excuse that I could not possibly cope with the office, as I was quite busy with the chemical society of which as described earlier I was a joint secretary. But my star rose higher. Shunning office was a mark of high character.
Life as a day scholar in those far-gone days was very chaotic. Some of us attended classes. Others spent time in the cafeteria or in jobs. Teachers fully cognizant of the parlous state of our finances, and worse living conditions at home gave us wide latitude. But we had a vibrant social, intellectual and political life. Karachi debaters were known for their oratorical prowess and won trophies from Lahore, the only other city of note in West Pakistan, as a matter of course. Karachi university Students union organized seminars in which leading lights of the government and opposition participated. I recall a session in which a Bengali minister Dildar Ahmad and Pir Ali Mamma Rashdi, a famed journalist/politician gave speeches. We took part in student union elections in the university and went canvassing to other college campuses. NSF won most of the elections and dominated the Inter Collegiate Body (ICB) a joint body of the President/General secretaries of all Karachi college student unions.
The one activity of particular note I recall from those days was the procession we took out to protest the attack of Britain, France and Israel on Suez Canal. We went round to various colleges and schools and appealed to the students to come with us. In schools we would first approach the Headmasters to let the students go. They would generally comply. One, however, did not and I hit upon the idea of ringing the school bell. All students left their classes immediately! We made our way to the Egyptian Consulate. The consul thanked us. One of the participants of the procession asked him about his country’s stand on Kashmir dispute. All the man would say was that he prayed that all the problems of Muslims would be resolved. (Few Arab countries ever supported Pakistan on any issue against India. Though Pakistan was always in the Arab corner, its participation in Western security pacts made its motives suspect. Nehru stoutly supported all the anti-colonial movements and had mesmerized the Arabs. On a visit he was hailed as “rasool as salaam” messenger of peace. I remember Pakistani public was incensed that a Kafir had been called Raosol, word sub-continental Muslims associate almost exclusively with messengers from god. It is only recently that some Pakistanis have started questioning their unconditional support of all Arab causes).
We went on to the PM’s residence. Suhrawardy came out and told us that the Government was cognizant of the issue and was doing whatever it could. Some one asked him why all the Muslim countries could not get together and defeat the aggressors. I cannot forget his response. He said zero plus zero plus zero was zero!!
One of the notable leaders this period threw up was Fatehyab Ali Khan , Vice-President of Islamia college students Union at the time. He was later elected President of Karachi university union and Chairman of ICB as well. A thorough gentleman, cultured and articulate, a good public speaker, he later joined Mazdoor Kisan party and rose to be its president. Another student leader to make his mark at the time was Mairaj Muhammad Khan, an emotional orator, and younger brother of a leftist luminary who was a well-known journalist. Mairaj was befriended by ZA Bhutto, and was once introduced by him to the public as one of his successors. He was a minister of state in Bhutto’s government. His power base was the industrial labor unions of Karachi. When Bhutto moved against organized labor, the latter implored him to resign. He did not, taking the plea that he could serve his constituency better from inside the cabinet. He pleaded for the workers with Bhutto, to no avail. As a token of solidarity he once joined a union procession and set some kind of record for being beaten up by the police in public, while a sitting minister . Once Bhutto had crushed the unions he sacked Mairaj and put him in jail. Later Meraj was to launch his own party and join other parties too. His last fling was joining hands with Imran Khan, the cricketer, turned politician. It must have been unpleasant experience and a come down as well. Shafi, a brilliant debator was a spent force by the time I met him in 1955-56. Barkaat, a party ideologue par ex”el.lance, had also been sidelined. He migrated to Britain and settled in Glasgow. Saghir joined Pakistan International Airlines and was the main force behind the Airline’s officers union.
All these undoubtedly talented young men had had to play a second fiddle to Sher Afzal , the man who dominated student politics of Karachi from 1955 to 1965. In late fifties and early sixties he was unarguably the most influential and by far the best-known student leader of the country, East and West.
Hasan Nasir went underground when Ayub Khan took over and suppressed all political activities and freedom of expession. He spent a part of his underground time in the home of the foreign secretary whose daughters were said to be in love with him. He had truly declassed himself. Wadood once asked me to accompany him, in a rather mysterious fashion, to accompany him to an out the way a locality in the town. We met Hasan Nasir who had spent the previous night sleeping on the footpath. I must say he did not look any worse for it. He was eventually arrested. It was widely believed at the time that he was betrayed to the police by a close and trusted associate , a journalist in the higher ranks of the party . He was tortured to death in Lahore fort. He was only thirty-two. Faiz, arguably the most renowned Urdu poet and unarguably the leading progressive muse in the language in the twentieth century, wrote a beautiful elegy for him. I quote a verse
“ Kaun Hota Hai hareefe-e-mai mard afghane ishq
Hai mukarrar ye sila labe saqi pe mere baad”
Transliterated it means that who will carry the emblem of defiance after me).
As noted earlier, Sher Afzal had made his initial appearance in student politics as a strong-arm man. He was something of a hooligan in his early years in the medical school, and acted the buffoon in public and private. He was molded by Hasan Nasir who indoctrinated him in communist theology and imposed him on leaders senior to him in hierarchy. Wadood, Sibghat and even more senior ones like Hashmi resented him but couldn’t defy Hasan Nasir. Sher Afzal underwent complete transformation. He adapted a serious demeanor, gave up pranks, and studied political science and international relations. A man of great innate qualities he could converse at all levels- with intellectuals, students and industrial workers. Punjabi was his mother tongue, but he had gone to school in Peshawar, and spoke Pushto like a native. In Karachi he had learnt Gujarati and Sindhi as well. He was fluent in Urdu though it was hardly chaste and managed English well enough, though it was deficient in grammar and diction. He had great organizational skills and had a devoted circle of admirers from all linguistic groups, but was weak in political theory. In a sense he was a true believer in providence. When he got his monthly money order from his father he would spend it all on taking all of us in a Victoria (a ceremonial Horse carriage named after the English Queen described fully elsewhere) to a restaurant and treat us to a lavish dinner and keep on going at it till he had run thorough the funds and subsequently subsisted on meals ungrudgingly bought for him by all his friends till his stipend came again.
He was elected president of Dow Medical students union in 1956. The union made some radical demands. The administration would not agree. A dozen or so activists, Sher Afzal among them and including a few girls went on hunger strike. It lasted many days and gathered sufficient public support to make no less a person than H.S. Suharwardy, the PM at the time to visit the college and give Sher Afzal a drink to break his fast. A natural populist, Suharwardy accepted all students’ demands. BBC, Tass and other international agencies flashed the news. Sher Afzal was lionized by the students, the public and party bosses and never looked back.
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