YOUTH POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND ON CAMPUS VIOLENCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF ISLAMABAD

Abstract

This study is intended to explore the sOciological realities of 011 ClIII/pliS violence in the public sectorulliversities of Islamabad Ideally, the universities lire expected to provide exposure lind politiclil edllcation to their graduates with peaceful means. However, the Pakistani universities are experiencing violent behavior of the studellts. Student IIniOI1S lI'erejimctioning illegally in universities and they are prone towards violent activities. In Pakistan, stlldent unions were banned by Suprellle Court of Pakistall ill 1993. However, stlldents have played vital role in the cOllnfry politics and many leaders emerged from student politiCS in universities. Meanwhile, campus violence is also dOlllinal1t in mostly universities of Pakistan like Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, International Islamic University Islamabad, Federal Urdu University Islamabad, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, and University of the Punjab Lahore. In October 2017, QI/aid-i-Azam University Islamabad remained closedfor 17 days due 10 student's strike. Owing 10 banned student unions, still some student's groups exist in universities. For example, Quaid-i-Azam University has s,~'( illegal political organizations in tlte shape of ethnic Coul/cils including Punjab Council, Pashtoon Coullcil, Gilgit COllncil, Sc".aiki Council, Me/Iran Coul/cil and Baloch COllncil. Similarly, Inlel'llalionallslamic University Islamabad has also sludel1l organizalions. These are Islami Jamiat TaIba (IJT), Pashloon Council, SO/'aih Council, alld Baloch Council. To understand this phenomenon, cultural violence theOlY has been lIsed in this research. AccOl'ding to Galtllng tlte violence isjllstijied through some cllllilral aspects like religion, ideologies and languages, Qualitative research approach was IIsed in this study through plII]Josive sampling. Interview gllide was used as a 1001 for data colfection. A 16 stlldents were interviewed from Iwo universities (Qlfaid-i·Azam University Islamabad alld Inlemational Islamic University Islamabad) for in-depth analysis of the on-campus violence, The on-campus violence is due 10 ethnic nationalism, biased and hated /iteratllre againsl opponent, alld political hegemony. The polilical organizations are 10 maintain titeir dominance and hegemonic posilion and promote violent activities. Similarly, the existing local literature andfolk lore create violent and hostile behavior among l'tlldents. Ethnic nationalism and thereby etlmocentri reason of violence among studenls.