The Municipal committee of Gwadar has selected student representatives through a special notification, without consulting any students in Gwadar. This novel method of selection, and not election, of student representatives is unprecedented.
On Friday Municipal Committee Gwadar released a notification that declared two students named Juniad and Faisal the representatives for the students in Gwadar. Junaid is the brother of Muhammad Jan, the Central Secretary of the student wing of National Party.
Since most of the current representatives of Municipal Committee in Gwadar belong to National Party and Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam, the selected student representatives hail from one of the two parties. But their is strong resentment among the students in Gwadar who have always been electing their representatives.
“Gwadar is one of the world’s unique towns where student representatives have been selected by political party favoritism instead of fair election” said a student.
According to the student organizations, there have always been elections for student representatives but this time it is a clear violation of students’ rights. Representatives from Gwadar Youth Forum allege that in doing this, the Municipal Committee has overstepped its powers and acted illegally.
They also highlighted the fact that representatives have always been college students and now one of the selected representatives is a school student.
Students in Gwadar are demanding the cancellation of the notification and have stated that if the Municipal Office refuses to do so, the students will take to the streets and protest.
