The Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) has announced rallies in 31 cities of the country on Saturday (tomorrow), to demand free education, restoration of student unions and employment and basic necessities for the people.
The demands of the PYA, a left-leaning student and youth organisation, also include free health, education, housing, employment etc.
The PYA, on its ‘Day of Action’, would take out protest rallies simultaneously in the major cities of the country, including Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Multan, Hyderabad, Hunza-Gilgit, Peshawar, Mirpur, Nawab Shah, Larkana, Noshehro, Mitthi, Dadu, DG Khan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Quetta and Zhob.
PYA activists Fazeel Asghar, Rai Asad, Adil Aziz and Javeria Malik, in a press conference, said the life of the working class, students and youth had become miserable because of lack of health and educational facilities, unemployment, terrorism, dilapidated physical infrastructure, state repression, and sexual harassment.
They said the living standards of the working class, youth and students had been affected as inflation had risen above 15 percent in the country and basic necessities of life were out of reach for a majority of people.
They regretted that unemployment had risen and there were no future prospects of job opportunities for even graduates, while the rulers made no effort to solve these issues, rather they took this crisis as an opportunity to mint more money following the maxim, “every disaster is an opportunity”.
They deplored the introduction of online education without provision of any facilities and without any consideration of students living in areas with no internet facilities, during Covid-19 pandemic.
They said because of the worsening situation, PYA had decided to mobilise the working-class youth and students throughout the country against surging unemployment, costly education and enforced fee collection, sexual harassment, gender oppression, inflation, poverty, lack of healthcare, ban on students union, state repression and the politics of ruling class.
