Filed under: Progressive politics | Tagged: AISF, Allahabad, APSO, Dow Medical College, Dr M Sarwar, DSF, journalist Akhtar, Karachi, pakistan, PMA, student federation India | Leave a comment »
Archival photos – AISF, APSO, DSF, PMA, Dow Medical College
“Students Movement leaders remembered: Revival of student activism termed must for reshaping society” – PPI report
PPI report by Azhar Khan
KARACHI, Jan 10 (PPI): In order to bringing positive, deep and lasting sociopolitical changes in Pakistani society it is necessary that students should play their due role and mount pressure on the policymakers through their activism to focus on the burning problems faced by our society and its people. For this purpose it is a must that student unions should be strengthened and their elections held on urgent basis.
This was said by speakers of a moot here on Saturday evening at Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi to pay rich tributes to the martyrs of “Students Movement 1953”.
This historic student movement was launched by Dr. Mohammad Sarwar, which played an important role in strengthening the leftist student movement in Pakistan.
Hundreds of students and civil society members attended the moot and paid rich tributes to the martyrs of “Students Movement 1953”. They also paid rich tribute to Dr. Mohammad Sarwar, who they said was the core catalyst for the formation of Students Unions for the first time in Pakistan. Continue reading
Filed under: Dr Sarwar legacy | Tagged: 1950s student movement, Alia Amirali, APSO, azhar Khan, Demands Day, Dr Adib-ul-Hasan Rizvi, Dr Ayub Mirza, Dr Haroon Ahmed, Dr Khawaja Moin, Dr Sher Afzal Malick, Dr Syed Haroon Ahmed, Dr. Jaffar Naqvi, Fehmida Riaz, Govt College for Women, High School Students Federation, HSSF, Husain Naqi, I.A. Rehman, ICB, Mazhar Jameel, Mazhar Saeed, Mirza M Kazim, ppi, rahat kazmi, Saleem Asmi, Shahida Haroon, Tina Sani | Leave a comment »
‘What he started will never die’ – Dr M. Ayub Mirza
In Memory of Dr M. Sarwar
Dr M. Ayub Mirza
Dr Sarwar was a great man and a wonderful friend. When, in the early 1950s, we were both at Dow Medical College we helped to found a students organisation. Later, we founded the All Pakistan Students Organisation. I remember very well an incident from those early times. Sarwar made a speech in the Medical Students’ Hall, the first political speech to have been made by a student in that college. This was an incredibly courageous act in those times. We had written the speech together, sitting in his elder sister’s house (Sadiqa – Mrs Dr Waheeduddin) where Sarwar had been staying at the time.
Within a few days, five other students had joined us, and gradually, we grew. Unfortunately, previously, all the students had had to commit themselves, in writing, to not forming a political entity on the premises of the college. We got round this by forming the Students’ Organisation, in a restaurant on the nearby Bandar Road and holding meetings there! We did not talk politics in the student hostel, because we didn’t trust the staff. We would write and rehearse speeches together. We were communists. Eventually, the majority of the students came to support us.
Our activities became known to the college authorities and the Principal was very angry. Both Sarwar and I were threatened with expulsion, and this created uproar in the College, with both students and – albeit confidentially – even some staff members declaring their support for us. The students threatened to go on strike.
Later, as is well-documented, on account of the political situation in Pakistan, we also went to jail together. We’d been sentenced to a year in prison, but street protests led to our early release.
Dr Sarwar was a very great friend of mine and in the most positive sense was a real gentleman. I know that he was a dedicated and caring physician. We kept in touch until I left Pakistan in the early 1990s. I am deeply saddened to hear of his passing and I offer my sincere condolences to his wife and family.
What he started will never die.
Transcribed from an oral interview,
Glasgow, Scotland,
August 2, 2009
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