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At Pakistan’s Harvard, an anti-Musharraf mood

— Photo: Special Arrangement

Students protesting at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

It is often described as the Harvard of Pakistan. At the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), students work hard, play hard, and then move on to well-paying jobs with multinationals here and abroad.

The perfume of privilege drifts over the neatly laid-out red-brick and ivy campus and its manicured lawns, where girls and boys from Pakistan’s Westernised, elite families hang out together without fear of being admonished by “fundos.” The standard look is jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers.

If ever there was a petridish of General Pervez Musharraf’s “enlightened moderation,” LUMS should have been it. But the very people who should have been supporting the Pakistan ruler are in the forefront of a small but significant students’ movement against him after the November 3 imposition of Emergency.

Now in its second week, the Emergency has not brought the people of Pakistan out on the streets in big numbers. There have only been pockets of resistance among civil society activists, lawyers, journalists. But for the first since the protests against Ayub Khan in 1968, there is unrest on campuses.

There have been small protests at various educational institutions, including the Quaid-e-Azam Univeristy in Islamabad, and at Punjab University. But to the surprise of many, LUMS has taken the lead.

“We are from elite families, and we get all the privileges. But it is not an excuse that we get everything, so we should stay quiet,” said an orange-sneakered boy, withholding his name as talking to a journalist could get him into trouble with the LUMS administration.

The students have just started a “hunger-strike week,” from noon to 4 p.m. daily, and volunteers are sprawled on a lawn near the canteen, some of them with books open besides them.

“It’s exam week, so we have to study also. But in spite of that, we are getting 25-30 volunteers,” said one of the hunger-strikers, wearing a black band around his head.

“Being part of an elitist institution does not mean that we close our eyes to what’s happening around us and move on from here to our high-paying jobs. It is high time that we look to the collective benefit of our country, beyond our narrow self-interests,” he said.

Rasul Baksh Rais, who teaches political science at LUMS, said the student protest dispelled the impression that this generation of youth was depoliticised and concerned only about salaries and jobs. “The students have been shocked by the enormity of the legal and political manoeuvring by President Musharraf to stay on in power. They are really concerned about how their country is seen in the outside world, what kind of label it is being given. It is they who have to live and deal with that label, which may not be very charitable. They want their country to be civilised in the tradition of modern civilisations, tolerant, pluralistic, democratic,” Dr. Rais said.

And they are technology savvy. The students have started a blog called pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com, with updates about the protests on the campus and people writing in with their own experiences of the Emergency from all parts of the country. Everyday, the blog is printed out in a two-sheet format called “The Emergency Times.”

“This generation has acquired its political consciousness in a globalised age. With their access to global information and new technologies, the kind of things they can do now leapfrogs the state, and can keep the state from doing anything to stop them,” said Dr. Rais

The students have six demands, and say they will not call off their protest until all are met — the lifting of Emergency, restoration of the judiciary, the restoration of the Constitution, the lifting of curbs on the media, and the release of those arrested after November 3.

The announcement by General Musharraf of January elections has not satisfied them. “What good will the election be if the media is not free and if there is an emergency. Musharraf has to give in. We are not going to stop until all our demands are met. These are not extravagant demands. They are just basic human rights stuff,” said another hunger-striker.

Until now, the LUMS administration has allowed the protests on the condition that they do not disrupt academic life. The institute is highly regarded for its excellence in teaching and its academic programmes, and admission to it is highly sought after. Part of the reason why the police have not touched LUMS and allowed the protests to continue, observers say, is that the children’s parents are mostly top bureaucrats or senior figures in the establishment.

One day last week, the police massed outside the gates threatening to enter when the students took out a protest rally inside the campus. But they held back, and the administration ensured that when students gathered again, it would be indoors, in an auditorium.

The students have no leader, and say they are not affiliated to any political party but seem to be inspired by politician and former cricketing hero Imran Khan. He happened to be visiting the campus at the very moment the Emergency was declared, for a seminar that was planned long ahead. His talk was their first up-close exposure with a real-life political crisis.

Since then, the students have invited other speakers to talk to them about the emergency. On Wednesday, it was Rashid Rehman, the executive editor of The Post and a student protestor against Ayub Khan. “The question everybody is asking is how come it is happening at LUMS. My reply is that these students are being taught to think, and the moment you do that, there is a danger that they may actually start to do that,” said Mr. Rehman.

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