Shezhad Arshad
On October 14, students from the Punjab Group of Colleges (PGC) in Lahore staged a massive protest against a rape on a college campus. The assault reportedly took place some days before on the Gulberg Campus where a security guard raped a first year student.
While the students are certain that rape was committed, the Principal has threatened to stop them protesting. The students of Gulberg Campus 10 say, „She was called to the basement and the security guard raped her“. Hearing her screams from a classroom, students went to help the student whose condition was so bad that teachers called for an ambulance and she was taken to hospital.
When the students of this college gathered to protest and to demand action and an investigation against the accused, they were intimidated by the Principal of the university and other teachers. But they did not back down. Rather, they took to social media to call for action. This led to the protests at both Gulberg campus 10 and other campuses on October 14. Students of other private and government colleges and universities took up the protest against this rape and in solidarity with the protesting students.
Initially, some of the state authorities tried to calm down the students and derail the protests. The police took the accused into custody and the Punjab minister for Higher and School Education, Rana Sikandar Hayat, visited the students and promised them justice. It immediately became clear that this was an empty promise.
State and university administration turn against victim
In fact, the college administration called in the police to attack the protesters and denied the rape had ever happened. The media and state authorities also turned against the protesters massively, answering their protests with threats, fabrications and slander. On that day alone, more than 28 students were injured by police violence.
The police claimed that no report had been filed against the accused rapist and that, according to their investigation, no such assault had taken place, even though the security guard had been arrested.
The government and the media turned against the students. In a video, a police officer belonging to a well-known and powerful family, Shahr Bano, appeared on social media reciting Quranic verses to “prove” that it was a rumour and that no such incident actually happened. This was also shared on PGC’s Facebook page to back their denial.
Likewise, the same officer (Shahr Bano) appeared in another video with the uncle of the female student. In this video, the uncle said that the girl’s name was being used on social media but nothing like that had happened to her. He said she had fallen down the stairs 10 days ago and they had x-rays and doctor’s reports to prove this.
In the meantime, the college administration destroyed evidence of the rape and the police sided with the college administration, leaving the victim and her family in deep fear. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz declared that the alleged rape was “fabricated news”, blaming Imran Khan’s political party, Tehreek-e-Insaaf, PTI, for spreading the “fake reports” on social media. This has created a situation in which liberals and people on the left are quite confused with some believing that this is indeed a PTI conspiracy.
Private Business and patriarchy
The students, however, are not prepared to accept these lies. They all know that harassment, sexual assaults and even rape are frequent on the campuses of PGC, one of the largest private sector university and college groups. It is owned by Mian Amir Mahmood, who not only owns the TV network Dunya News, but also two chartered universities and 56 campuses, where about 70,000 students study. The group is worth about $132.6 million (Rs 37 billion) and has thousands of employees. Education is a big business and Mian Amir has a big stake in the business and is deeply connected to the ruling elite.
It is clear that the whole matter is being covered up so that the business empire established in the name of education is not harmed and there is no resistance against the way private education has become a profitable business. Currently, there are thousands of private educational institutions, including large groups, and this is a business worth trillions of rupees. All of them have the same interest, that there should be no student resistance either to this particular incident or to more general sexual harassment and other forms of abuse.
In all this, the role of the political parties of the Pakistan elite has been badly exposed. Instead of supporting the students, they are now defending the system, which leads to systematic sexist abuse and rape. The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) is trying to take additional political advantage by claiming the accusation of rape was a PTI conspiracy. They are supporting a private institution despite the very disturbing reports and when sexual harassment is on the rise in these private institutions.
Students do not back down
The students’ struggle has not ended. On October 15, there were solidarity actions and protests in other cities of Punjab like Gujranwala, Gujrat, Faisalabad, Jaranwala and Kamoke as well as in Peshawar and many other cities. Progressive students in Lahore, especially the Progressive Students’ Collective, remain very active on this issue and stand with students against police violence. They also held a protest march from Government College, Lahore, to the Punjab Assembly on October 15 and staged a sit in at Faisal Chowk, a major road intersection, in Lahore. They raised the following the following demands:
- A committee consisting of independent human rights organisations, student representatives and judges should be established to investigate the Punjab College rape assault, the harassment incident in Lahore College for Women and the violence against the students.
- Anti-harassment committees should be established on all campuses and representation of students, especially female students, should be ensured.
- An awareness campaign on laws and procedures related to harassment should be mounted and these awareness guidelines should be included in the curriculum.
Since October 14, the movement has spread even more, but so also have the repression and attacks by the police. On October 17, for example, there were huge protests on the streets of Rawalpindi with more than 250 students arrested. The Progressive Students’ Collective, one of the main organisations backing the initially very spontaneous protests, declared on October 16 on X: “Until and unless the demands of students are met, we will continue to expand these protests across the country”. They need and deserve the backing of all working class and progressive organisations, of the entire labour, trade union and women’s movement for their courageous struggle.
Sexism in Pakistan
In Pakistan, assaults against women happen on a daily basis in schools, colleges, universities and workplaces. In most cases, however, the victims tolerate it silently because they know if they speak out nothing will happen to the perpetrators but they themselves will suffer defamation. Often families also silence women in the name of “honour” or even blame them. So this movement is very important and it should bring out criticism against sexual harassment and patriarchy. Anti-harassment committees should be formed in all institutions, workplaces and in the neighbourhoods, instead of waiting for the government or the college managements.
Students should elect their own committees to conduct an independent investigation into the student’s rape. The committees should investigate cases of sexual assault and should be elected at the schools, colleges and universities and democratic decisions should be made in these committees against sexual harassment. This will help the students to resist collectively, even where the administration tries to deny the cases or backs the criminals. Such committees should not be confined to the students, but also include the workers and trade unions on the campuses. Similarly, the security on the campus should not be organised by private business or the administration, but controlled by students and workers, so that they protect the victims, not the perpetrators.
This movement against sexual harassment is very important. This protest is showing the anger of the students due to the situation in the colleges. The growing capitalist crisis already means that their lives will be miserable, even after education they may not get a good job. Currently, teachers in government schools and workers in other departments are protesting across Punjab against privatisation and other cuts. Massive protest movements are also developing in many other provinces. In this situation, the space for public protest is widening.
This opens the very real chance to unite the progressive students fighting against sexism and patriarchy on the campuses with the struggles of the workers. This would allow the building of a massive joint movement against repression, against sexism and against the programmes of privatisation and cuts of the IMF programme, which affect workers, students and the mass of the population. For this, the movements developing across the country need to form a united front of the progressive students, the left and trade unions in a wider struggle against the attacks by the government, the bourgeois and reactionary institutions and the capitalist class.
