On behalf of all its participants, the Students Movement at LUMS has clarified its position on various points:

Press Release, Tuesday 15/11/2007

“As our movement gains in strength, support, momentum and therefore, media attention, the students of the protest movement at the Lahore University of Management Sciences would like to clarify our position on a number of points.

Our movement is fundamentally a non-partisan, civil society movement which was begun by students last week as a spontaneous reaction against the imposition of a state of emergency in our country. We are united in a clear and principled commitment to the reinstatement of the judiciary and the restoration of the Constitution and of basic civil rights, the release of illegally detained prisoners and an end to preposterous curbs on the media. Our aim is to uphold and defend the autonomy of the judiciary in Pakistan. As we increase communication with students from other educational institutions in the country, we are confident and hopeful that we can all unite behind a particular principle – the critical necessity of the sovereignty of the judiciary for sustainable political and social development in Pakistan.”

“With regard to recent invitations to meetings with prominent political figures, we would like to assert that our student movement is a civil society initiative which is completely non-partisan, having no affiliation with any political party and no future ambition of forming one. Nor have our actions in any way been in accordance with the directives or motivation of any political leader. The participants of our student movement are all private individuals, with a diverse range of personal political leanings. As we have no student leaders who are invested with the right of representing the political leanings of a particular group of students, it is not within the power of any participant of
our movement to accept an invitation to meet with representatives of political parties on behalf of other students.

We would like to stress that anyone from the student movement who engages in a ‘dialogue’ or interaction with political parties, their agents or their student wings, does so solely in her/his personal capacity and does not, by any means, represent the student body of LUMS or the student community at large.

The purpose of our student movement is solely to rally around particular issues or principles and increase awareness of Pakistan’s socio-political realities in the student body. However, as university students, we are always very eager to widen our horizons and meet with different political figures. Our Law and Politics Society (LPS) frequently invites eminent personalities of politics, academia, the social sector and the media, and arranges seminars as an opportunity for the student body to intellectually engage with these individuals and benefit from their knowledge and experience. In the recent past, we have hosted such prominent figures as Mr. Talat Hussein (of Aaj TV), Mr. Imran Khan and Justice Jawad Khwaja. In the coming months before the elections, the Law and Politics Society plans to invite leading figures from major political parties to talk to our student body about their manifestos and ideas for Pakistan’s development. Some politicians, such as Mr. Imran Khan, with whom we have had the opportunity to interact, have already been invited for a seminar prior to the elections.

As far as the recent invitation by Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto is concerned, while it is not within the power of any individual or group of students to accept the invitation on behalf of the student movement, it would be a pleasure for our Law and Politics Society to host the Muhtarma as a guest speaker at a seminar with the entire student body, should our invitation be accepted.

With regard to the comment from Mr. Muhammad Islam of the Islami Jamiat-e Tuleba:-
“Muhammad Islam said IJT would launch a massive awareness campaign among students to mobilize them against the state of emergency in the country. He informed that the Islami Jamiat-e Tuleba was in contact with students of other universities including LUMS and FAST-NU.” (Students invoke black, week, armbands to protest. Khalid Khattak, The News International)

We would like to clarify that there have been no dealings between the student movement at our university and the Islami Jamiat-e Tuleba in an official capacity. We cannot, of course, comment on the activities of any private individual from our university, who has engaged with the IJT in a purely personal capacity.”

– Student Movement at LUMS