NED: A Political and Social History. Part I (1980)
Posted by safwan_shah on August 30, 2007
When I joined NED, we were in the 2nd or 3rd year of Zia’s Pakistan. It was a strange era as we hadn’t yet realized how rapidly the country was changing. The refugees from Afghanistan had not yet impacted the entire country; there was a lot of moral preaching and some moral policing but nothing that was remarkable. In retrospect that was a strange era – we were actually in limbo and didn’t know it is probably the best way to put it. Cultural norms were starting to change as more and more people took sides on religious issues.
In a surreal sort of a way, Pakistan was becoming rigid in its innermost ideology but we had no way of knowing that. There was just no way anyone could predict where we were headed. You would very occasionally see someone who carried an unkempt beard … there would be about 10 to 15 students in the on-campus mosque – at most. Everyone was very nice and cordial. No one would be judged on their looks, likes and interests. Calling a progressive a “dhahria” (atheist) was perhaps the worst one would hear; and calling Jamatis “agents of the US” the other opposite. There was still a Friendship House (the Soviet empire hadn’t yet folded) and we would get the occasional CIA or KGB recruitment on campus …
Talking about Independence Day -
Imagine an era where there is no Dil-Dil Pakistan (came in 1987 I am told) and we still have residue of Madame Noor Jehan, Amanat Ali Khan ( Ay Pak Watan), Mehnaz and Mehdi Hasan to inspire and rejuvenate us … it was a simple time. Television was something you had for 6 hours a day and newspapers were the only real source of knowledge and inspiration. Imagine!
This little video clip could not even be imagined then.
Moving along – Some boring trivia –
I started classes on July 15th 1980. NED had 3 programs –
Civil Engineering – Chairman was Dr Makhdumi
Mechanical Engineering – Chairman was Dr Jamil
Electrical Engineering – Chairman was Dr Qavi Qazi
The VC was Dr A T Khan and the Dean was Dr Alvi.
The batch of 1980 had the usual 600 odd students after the reserved seats and domicile quotas were completed.
CE = 270 + (3 sections)
ME = 230 + (3 sections)
EE = 126 [I was in EE - 2 sections]
When we entered the university the Student Union was run by the PSF (Progressive Students Front) and they were very active in guiding and engaging with incoming students. These were very innocent times in comparison to what happened in the mid-to-late 1980’s.
The Student union included Farhat Adil as President (lives in Pakistan), Mohammad Haseen as General Secretary (lives in Canada), Rashid Ali Baig as Publications Secretary, …, I can’t remember the names of the others in the student government.
In September 1980, a few weeks after classes began, there was an election and the new union was elected. The incumbent PSF managed to sweep all the 7 panel positions. The president was Rashid Ali Baig (lives in NY). The new General Secretary was Amanullah Hanif (lives in Pakistan), the Joint Secretary was Shahzad Qazi (lives in Chicago), Mazhar Ali was the Literary & Debating Secretary (lives in Houston), …
NED was an amazingly vibrant and exciting place. There were debating competitions, sports events, … no violence yet!!
To be continued if there is any interest ….
Editor’s Note: Safwan Shah was Chairman of the Progressive Students Front (PSF) just before elected student unions were outlawed by the regime of Gen. Ziaul Haque. You can follow his progress after NED here.
Great post Safwan,
I know that a lot of senior people mentioned about the sort of left right political activism which was pretty common at NED and KU.
During our days, due to the ban on student unions we never got a chance to be involved in Student Union elections. During our times politics was definitely a No No given the history of violent student politics which took a number of precious and is still going on as you must have read in DAWN that in Sindh Medical college the clash took lives to students.
With that situation, how would you expect any serious student to be involved in political activism.
Shahran, that is the point. When you ban legitimate engagement and destroy the institutions through students–or citizens generally–can engage with their institutions and their nation in a constructive way, then you make violence, fanaticism, and so on inevitable. As long as there were elected student unions guns did not rule the campus and average students could engage with politics and learn the art of running their communities. Once that was removed, the “KK” (AK47, for non-Pakistanis) culture took over.
Dear readers,
i wrote this as a comment on another blog – it kind of embarrasses me that it is being put on the main page to discuss … our Editor (Sabahat doesnt give you much choice) this post is just my personal recollection … akin to remembering what i saw from a window about 20+ years ago. Granted that this window was of a time when i (most of us are) was most impressionable … please take it for what it is …. a spur of the moment, written in 3 minutes, between the daily grind of emails and phone-calls …
Hence, it is an honest recollection.
Shahran,
Good questions … i do know that some very eminently qualified NEDians are reading these blogs … perhaps one of them will respond.
My own take is simple – when you stifle argument and push “fundamental difference” under the rug – then the society breaks down at its core, which means the foundation becomes weak. A weak foundation cannot support anything.
In the absence of a platform that students could use to channel their ideological energies we end up with a lot of pretenses. No one discusses real issues when in campus BUT they live it outside – so what is the benefit of stifling activism?? Our universities should train the leaders of tomorrow. I believe that a classroom and overall academics contribute 50% of the value. In his book on IItians, Sandipan Deb talks about learning inside and outside the classroom – it should be read by NEDians …
Shahran, NED is a very compelling university. We learned many things – life, struggle, leadership, entrepreneurship, progressive thought, politics, … you name it, we got it from mother NED.
Safwan Sahib,
That does not mean that we did’nt have political disucssions within the ourselves. Ofcourse I myself as majority of students got involved in political discussions but those were limited to either at the Mech Corner at a cup of tea with some PSF guy, a Jamati or an APMSO person or during a group study session or at some of the teacher’s room. But that was it and nothing really moved beyond that.
In the end, I must agree with you (although Sabahat might differ he might respond to this)that NED is really a compelling university.
Safwan Saahab, your piece not only is of a quality to merit it’s own entry, but also provided us a snapshot of a very critical juncture in our (if not general) recent history. And, as you can see, also a very useful jumping-off point for a lot of the fundamental discussions we often avoid having.
It can only be considered a tribute to your intellect that you can knock off something of that quality in 3 minutes.
I am hoping others will chime in with their own thoughts, impressions, memories, analyses, etc.
Shahran, It is in fulfilling its actual mission–especially in the period towards the end of Gen. Zia’s regime and right after–that I am critical/condemnatory of NED. In terms of being compelling, I completely agree with you and Safwan Saahab.
I have always held that whatever I might think of the institution, to me, the value and the greatness of NED is, and always has been, NEDians; the community you see on this blog. That I wouldn’t trade for anything. And that’s why you see me involved with NEDian alumni efforts–and not just in the back row of that, either.