How power, politics and fear reshaped our universities |
A university is meant to be a sanctuary of thought - a place where ideas clash, where voices rise and where the future quietly takes shape in classrooms, corridors and debates. But in Pakistan, the university has never truly been silent and yet, paradoxically, it has never been allowed to express freely. For decades, campuses across the country have stood not merely as centres of education, but as battlegrounds. They have carried the weight of ideology, the burden of political ambition and the scars of state intervention. What should have been a space for intellectual awakening has become a theatre of control and fear. This story did not begin in darkness. It began with hope.
Before Pakistan even existed, students were not passive observers of history. They were its architects. The Muslim Students Federation, inspired by the vision of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, transformed youthful energy into political force. Campuses became centres of resistance, of a dream that would eventually become a nation. Students were not tools, they were leaders.
But after independence, something shifted. The same campuses that once nurtured freedom began to fracture along ideological lines. On one side stood progressive voices like the Democratic Students Federation, demanding rights, equality and intellectual freedom. On the other stood organisations like Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, advocating for a moral and........