Students' protest.

A GROUP of university students in Karachi and Hyderabad caught the media's attention when they announced a 100-hour-long hunger strike outside the press clubs of both cities. The students are affiliated with a small group that calls itself the Sindh Students Council, comprising mostly university students. According to them, their hunger strike will end today ie March 4, a date they remember as relevant to the Sindh students' struggle against the dictatorship of Ayub Khan. Their demands include the restoration of student unions, provision of adequate facilities such as hostels and eviction of the security forces from university campuses. Additionally, their demand for checking 'fake' students' domiciles in Sindh may create the impression of nationalistic aspirations but the issue of falsified documentation has been of concern and must be addressed to ensure that the process of granting domiciles does not entail any kind of unscrupulous tactic.

Meanwhile, it is a pity that there seems to be no move to revive the defunct students' unions. University campuses must be avenues for the intellectual and ideological grooming of young men and women to...