Islami Jamiat Talaba’s 16-day march on Mall Road will demand restored student unions, lower fees and 4% of GDP for education, as Pakistan’s spending falls to 0.8%.
LAHORE:Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), one of Pakistan’s largest student organisations, will begin a 16-day “road caravan” from Rahim Yar Khan on Monday, November 9. The march is due to reach Lahore’s Mall Road on November 24, where the group says thousands of students will press the Punjab government on fees, campus safety and the decades-old ban on student unions.
Announcing the caravan at the Lahore Press Club, IJT’s Punjab South nazim Huzaifa Usman said education was a basic right of every student, not a privilege of one class. Rising fees, the privatisation of public institutions, insecurity on campuses and a class-based education system had created severe hardship for students and parents, he said, while the government remained a silent spectator.
Eight demands
The group set out eight demands:
– Restore student unions in all educational institutions;
– Cut fees immediately and make education affordable;
– Guarantee students’ safety, with transparent inquiries into harassment and violence on campuses;
– Make private medical colleges charge within the fee limits set by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC);
– Set up an independent regulator for fees and standards at private universities;
– Stop privatising public institutions and improve their facilities;
– Allocate at least 4 percent of GDP to education;
– End the class-based system in favour of a uniform, quality education system.
IJT Lahore nazim Abdullah bin Abbas said Lahore’s students would welcome the caravan and gather in thousands on Mall Road on November 24. Information secretary Saifullah Chauhan said IJT believed in peaceful struggle but warned that if the government ignored the demands, students would be forced into strong protests across the province, for which the Punjab government would be responsible.
How the demands stand up
Some of the claims are backed by official data. Pakistan’s spending on education fell to 0.8 percent of GDP in fiscal 2025, down from 1.5 percent in fiscal 2023, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2025-26. Total education spending dropped 23 percent to Rs962 billion. The demand for 4 percent matches the low end of the UN-backed Incheon Declaration’s 4 to 6 percent benchmark, a level Pakistan has never reached.
On medical fees, the PMDC capped annual tuition at private medical and dental colleges at Rs1.8 million, rising to Rs1.89 million for the 2025-26 session, with later increases tied to inflation. In January, families complained that some colleges were charging above the cap through extra “remaining fees”. The regulator says it is monitoring compliance, and in February the private colleges’ association reaffirmed that it would abide by the cap.
On privatisation, the Punjab government has outsourced thousands of public schools to private operators under its school reform programme, a policy it says improves management and enrolment. Critics, including the PMML, argue that outsourcing 6,460 more schools is no fix for Punjab education.
The union question
Student unions were banned in 1984 under Gen Zia-ul-Haq’s military government. Successive governments have promised to restore them, and Sindh became the first province to pass a law doing so. Punjab has not followed. Supporters say elected unions would give students a legal voice on fees, hostels and harassment committees. Opponents fear a return to the violent campus politics of the 1980s.
IJT’s own record is part of that debate. The group has long been a dominant presence at Punjab University, where its activists have clashed with rival student groups, and critics accuse it of trying to impose its views on campus life, a charge IJT rejects. Tensions at the university remain high: in September, a case was registered against Punjab University teachers and employees over a protest.
The caravan will pass through southern and central Punjab before reaching Lahore. The government has not yet responded to the demands. The final rally on Mall Road, a route often restricted for protests, will test both the group’s turnout and the administration’s response.
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