It was surprising, and disconcerting, to hear that Rangers have been summoned to Quaid-e-Azam University after the recent stories of violence between two groups on campus. It is even more painful to realise that this is a disaster in which the whole university suffers, and a disaster which could easily be averted.

The fight at QAU this week began as all fights begin, an exchange of abusive language between young men who are easy to dismiss as ‘hot-headed’. Soon, the student councils got involved, the crowds on both sides got bigger, sticks were raised and people started to end up in hospitals.

For now, the university is closed indefinitely for academic activities and hostels have also been vacated. An FIR has been registered against 60 students for vandalism, harassment and armed assault. The university has also created a 21-member committee of university academics and adminsitrators that will create proposals for a ‘peaceful’ working environment in a week. Meanwhile rangers will try to solve the problem on their own.

However, the issue at hand has a longer story than something that will simply be fixed by a committee or a patrol.

The creation of student groups

The story of how these groups were created goes back to General Zia ul Haq’s rule. In 1984, the General was riding high on the power he had snatched and he decided that violence on campus was the fault of student unions. He banned the unions and told everyone things would be quieter. The real reason, as many have said, was because these unions were a major source of anti-government agitation.

At QAU, the ban on unions did not put an end to students coming together entirely. The university had always been called a ‘mini-Pakistan’ because the admission quota ensured representation from every part of the country. So QAU built up student councils based on ethnic lines, a Punjab Council, a Pakhtoon Council, a Baloch council and so on.

The councils mainly became a space for cultural events. Students could get away from the grind of studying and the ones from remote areas could be among their own people without being pushed into a crisis of belonging. But the events from the recent fight show that the transition from unions to councils, at best only redefined the battle lines instead of removing them.

The fight at the university began over an alleged racial slur exchanged between some Pakhtun and Baloch students. This is how fights at the university always begin between these ‘hot heads’ at cricket matches or dhabas. Because the councils exist, the slurs were seen as an attack on the entire council and consequently on the entire ethnicity. The only reason you heard about this particular fight is because it turned nasty.

However, the cause of the fight here is not the readiness of these boys to fight or the fact that they are organized into ethnic groups. The real reason is the administration’s complete disconnect from the student body.

The disconnect

Once the fight breaks out, the internal security on campus is no match for entire crowds charging at each other. The police was not called on time and the Rangers were called too late in a disproportionate response. The only solution, the easiest and most obvious, is for the admin to engage theses students.

Ask any office holder of these unions and they will tell you that the administration never made an effort to establish a liaison with the student bodies. The councils are left to their own devices. No one monitors them and no one makes themselves available to hear their calls. The right response in a situation where slurs are exchanged is for the administration to know. But the councils, who have never spoken to anyone in the admin, are not likely to start reaching out when the sparks are already flying.

The admin’s disconnect is evidenced by the fact that its only major response is to simply shut the university and empty the hostels. They seem to be trying to wish their trouble away; after all if there are no students on campus how will they fight?

Students were given only a few hours’ notice to get their belongings and vacate the hostels. Where can a boy from Skardu or from Khuzdar go when it’s the 27th of the month and he is almost out of money already? The boys might still be able to scrape together some solution, but where will the young women go? Is Islamabad safe enough for a large group of women who have been suddenly forced out of the place they lived in?

Closing hostels and shutting the campus is at best a fire-extinguisher style solution. It will help calm matters, but only until the next slur is exchanged. Closing down the councils and leaving the students even more inaccessible and disorganized is no solution either. The only way for the admin to prevent students getting into a fight, and then being forced to push the students out of their hostels at night is to sit down and talk to the students.