List of student federations of Pakistan

The public education system has three major problems facing it right now. First, there is a shortage of teachers and schools within the country. Approximately 33% of the children in Pakistan are not attending school, and even the ones who are may not have an actual teacher in the class room.[10] Second, the public education system is outdated by over 30 years. The textbooks used in the majority of public schools were written in the 1980s and they tend to lead students to be more susceptible to adaptation into radical forms of Islam.[11] Third is the stark difference between the private and public education systems. The top ten percent of the country send their children to private schools that speak English, instead of Urdu, and most children coming out of the private education system tend to be dismissive of their Urdu-speaking counterparts. This is creating a strong communication and familial rift between the educated population of Pakistan.[11]

Several political youth organizations in Pakistan have recognized these problems and are trying to address them. For example, the Pakistan Youth Movement has been trying to get more teachers to come to Pakistan, and the Anjuman-e-Talaba-e-Islam states as part of its mission to help create equality amongst Muslim students.Imamia Students' Organization(ISO) , Pakistan is a students organization in Pakistan for improve education of Shia students more and more Shia learn and serve the nation.

The job market in Pakistan is not promising for students coming out of the education system. The unemployment rate in 2008 was estimated at 24.67%. This was attributed to a large part of the student population getting educated for technical jobs that are not in high demand in the country.[12] Approximately 85% of Pakistanis only make $4 per day, which is not an appealing prospect to college graduates in Pakistan.[13] This disparity of expectations is mobilizing factor behind a significant number of student federations.[11]

The student federations of Pakistan have been known to engage in fights over political, religious, ethnic, nationalist, and sectarian differences. Several students die each year in the physical confrontations that frequently break out between groups during protests.[14]

Mustafavi Students Movement (Urdu: مصطفوی سٹوڈنٹس موومنٹ پاکستان ) is a student organisation of the Minhaj Ul Quran International. It was established on 6 October 1994 under the supervision of Dr Muhammad Tahir Ul Qadri . MSM is busy to protect students from violation and immoral activities and to provide positive avenues to their emotions. This Movement is active in universities, colleges, schools and religious institutes at nationwide level. To eliminate illiteracy and spread the light of knowledge, Discourage the drugs usage, waywardness, obscenity, vulgarity and to eradicate the thriving trends of western culture and draw the attention of students from violent attitude towards educational and national objectives, which is the prior responsibility of Mustafavi Students Movement.

Anjuman Talaba-e-Islam ("Islamic Organization of Students") is the non-political student organization founded on 20 January 1968 with respect to 20th Shawwal 1387 A.H at Sabz Masjid Sarafa Bazaar, Karachi, Pakistan by a group of students. In 1986 student union elections in all cities of Pakistan, ATI came forward as the leading victorious Student Organization by taking more than 80% results.The current President is Moazzam Shazad Sahi from Faislabad, Pakistan.

Muslim Students Organization Pakistan (MSO) is an independent student organization. It aims to propagate Islamic culture in educational institutions of Pakistan and to work for the rights of students.

It is unclear when the Pakistan Islamic Students Federation (PISF or APISF) was founded, though its internet presence was established on February 24, 2012. PISF is an Islamic group in Pakistan best known for its protests of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad, where they called for the public hanging of the Danish cartoonists.[14][15]

Imamia Students Organisation is a Shi'a Muslim students organisation in Pakistan. It was founded by Dr. Mohammad Ali Naqvi on 22 May 1972 at University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore. In 2012 it had "around 1200 units in Pakistan,"[16] covering all the five provinces of Pakistan, Tribal areas, Azad Jamu, Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.

The Goal of this Organization is to set the lives of the young generation in accordance with the teachings of Quran and Mohammad-o-Aal-e-Mohammad (as), so that they may become good Human beings and Momins, and may defend the Highness of the Holy Religion and the geographical and ideological boundaries of Pakistan.[17]

Allegations were directed against ISO that they receive funding from Iran. ISO counters those allegations, stating that they only receive moral guidance from Iran.[16]

Muslim Student Federation or MSF is a conservative Pakistani political group that was started on September 1, 1937, in Calcutta, India by the old All-India Muslim League.[18] The group has a wing in Pakistan that is led by Rana Arshad.[19] and Rana Hassnain leading in Punjab as senior vice president along with coordinator Green Tiger. The student federation has also been known to engage in fights previously with some of the progressive student federations[20] and exhibit an independent mildly conservative nature.[21]

In Pakistan MSF-N is aligned to the PML-N, which is a centre-right party and its student wing is very liberal/conservative nowadays.

Democratic Students Federation (DSF) was founded in 1949, and being the oldest leftist student federation in Pakistan many other left leaning student political organizations can trace their heritage back to this group.[6] The DSF was banned in 1956 because of its political association with the communist party, which resulted in several other student groups forming from its ashes, like the National Students Federation and the Liberal Students Federation.[22] The DSF was allowed to reorganize in 1980, and grew in popularity because of its connection to the then powerful Soviet Union. This popularity faded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the group restructured itself in 2011 to adapt to more current issues. The groups stated mission is to, "bring back the balance of power to the students in universities which is formerly lost." Nowadays, both the NSF and ISF claim common heritage from the old DSF.

'JUTT Students Federation was formed in 2010 as a faction/group that split off from the JUTT Students Federation.Chairman Ch Ijaz jutt And General Secretary Ch Umar Saleem Ghumman .[22]

National Students Federation (NSF) was formed from the remnants of the Democratic Students Federation when it was banned in 1956.[22] The group is a self-proclaimed revolutionary left and centre-left student federation whose stated goals are to:

1. Struggle for a class free education system and all rights of the student community
2. Struggle for free education for all
3. Struggle for improvement in the conditions of all educational institutes
4. Promote peace, tolerance and unity amongst students
5. To link students with the international movements against capitalist, imperialist oppression.

In 2008 the group was reorganized during the Lawyers' Movement, and now primarily operates out of Punjab, though its values remain mostly the same and just like the old DSF gave birth to the powerful NSF recently in a similar way the NSF has helped give birth to the programme of the newly formed Insaf Student Federation (ISF).[23]

Liberal Students Federation was formed in 1973 as a faction/group that split off from the National Students Federation.[22]

Pakistan Young Leaders Federation was formed in 2014. Leader of PYLF is Hassan Javaid Khan

Peoples Students Federation is a students-led organisation attempts to mobilize the youth for Peoples Party candidates for the Youth Parliament.[24] It also has the separate Trotskyist-Marxist wing, "The Struggle", which is internationally affiliated with International Marxist Tendency (IMT); the student wing, the Peoples Students, a student-outreach organization with the goal of training and engaging the new generation for the betterment of country through education and Pakistan Peoples Party members.

The All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organization Urdu: (آل پاکستان متحدہ اسٹوڈنٹس آرگنائزیشن)‎ (APMSO) is notable for being the student organization that created Pakistan's 4th Notional Political Party, the Mohajir Quami Movement, now called the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).[25][26]

APMSO was founded by Altaf Hussain along with other students include Azeem Ahmed Tariq, Dr. Imran Farooq and others on Sunday, June 11, 1978 at Karachi University. Hussain also served as a first Chairman of the organization while Azeem Ahmed Tariq served as the first General Secretary of the organization.

While the APMSO platform has some liberal elements to it, at its core it is the ethnic political party of the Muhajir, an Urdu speaking people who immigrated from India in 1947.[27] It was later renamed the All Pakistan Muttahida Students Organization (APMSO) and is still known by this name. It is arguably the most active and well-organised student union in Sindh public sector universities and organises many activities for general students.

Pakistani Youth Organization (PYO) is a dynamic forum of the energetic and passionate Pakistani youth, who aims to contribute to the welfare of the society at large. PYO aims to gather youth from different backgrounds, educate them, empower them and engage them for the nation building projects. PYO is a registered Organization under Societies Registration Act, Pakistan, founded in March 2007 by two young activists, Sheraz Ali Khan and Sabieh-ul-Hasan. PYO served in the areas of literacy, education, health, IDPs relief work, Floods and Earthquake effectees Aid, and numerous community events.

Pakistani Youth Movement was started sometime in 2010 for the stated goal of harnessing the educated youth of Pakistan to make the country as a better place.[28] The group claims to not have any ties to political or religious entities,[29] and does not have the structured leadership normally found within a political party.[28] The group has posted videos about their active role in giving relief to flood victim and their support of the Teach for Pakistan Movement in 2011.

Youth Association of Pakistan (YAP) is one of the leading youth organisation of Pakistan. This organisation was founded by two youth leaders named as kashif Zaheer Kamboh and Abdul Qadir. YAP is working with youth of Pakistan to project the better image of Pakistan.

Pakistan Youth Council (PYC) was started by Mian Muhammad Arfat in 2010, as a membership based democratically aligned youth organization. The group’s mission is to, "create economic, political and social awareness among youth and enable them to protect and claim their rights e.g. education, health, employment and sports."[30] The PYC has promoted the role of youth in politics through educational conferences and lobbying for age reduction for parliamentary candidacy.[31]

Youth Parliament of Pakistan (YPP) is a democratically oriented activism group started in 2006. The group does not a political or religious affiliation, and primarily works on educating the youth of Pakistan about the ideas of democracy.[32] In 2009, YPP started the Youth Action for Democracy in collaboration with the United Nations Democracy Fund. This project was aimed at increasing democratic education and youth participation in politics in the districts of Punjab, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtoonkha, Sindh, and Azad Jammu Kashmir.[33]

Karachi Youth's Federation (KYF) is a youth organization of Karachi who is working to alliance youth patriotically for professional development and public welfare. Chairman Muhammad Umer Khan founded in 2008 on June 20. KYF is pro Pakistan and supporting Armed Forces for a good Civil Military Relations.[34]