A slightly abridged version of this article was published in Dawn as Student movement revisited, April 5, 2008
Scan from front page of Student Herald 'Martyrs Number', Vol. 1, No. 5, Jan 19, 1953
Setting the record straight
Democratic Students Federation: The first all-Pakistan student body
By S. Haroon Ahmed and Saleem Asmi
The welcome move by newly elected Prime Minister Yusuf Reza Gillani to revive student unions takes us back the first all-Pakistan students’ body, the Democratic Students Federation, which laid the foundations not only for the progressive outlook of the National Students Federation (NSF) but also the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA). The DSF is often either ignored or misrepresented in most accounts of the history of the students’ movement in Pakistan, like the article ‘Students politics: a brief history’ (Dawn Magazine, February 10, 2008) which otherwise included excellent thumb-nail sketches of student unions. At this critical juncture of Pakistan’s history, there is a need to set the record straight regarding the DSF.
Filed under: 1950s student movement | Tagged: 1947 Partition, 1950s student movement, Asif Hameed, Asif Jaffery, Cold War, democracy, DJ Science College, Dow Medical College, Dr Haroon Ahmed, Dr Mir Rehman Ali Hashmi, dr sarwar, DSF, eric rahim, Islamia College, Jamat-e-Islami, Khudai Khidmatgar, migration, Muslim League Students Federation, Oudh restaurant, pakistan, S. M. Naseem, Saleem Asmi, SM Arts College, Students Herald, Yousuf Ali | 1 Comment »
