Abstract:
In the 70 years since independence, Pakistan has experienced substantial political turbulence.
Over the years, this has been consistently reflected in the political participation of the country’s
young populace. This study intends to measure the current political awareness and participation
levels among university students of Pakistan. It tests the activism of students in the political
scenario to gauge the tier at which they stand on, with respect to the ‘hierarchy of political
participation’ model by Milbrath (1981). Our research study also tries to address the question if
student unions serve as nurturing grounds for political leadership of Pakistan or not. Two
research instruments, surveys and interviews, under the quantitative and qualitative; and
exploratory and explanatory were used to address the aforementioned questions and had been
instrumental in further testing our hypotheses. Students from 2 major universities, National
University of Science and Technology and Quaid-E-Azam University, in Islamabad filled a total
of 302 survey questionnaires. Moreover, a total of 22 interviews were conducted from whereby
our respondents were academic experts, politicians having previously been a part of student
unions, and politicians who have not been a part of student unions at all. Observable variables
incorporated in the study include education, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender etc. The
results show that the current level of student participation is low; whereby, student unions indeed
serve as nurturing grounds for political leadership. The study further recommends various policy
options for increasing the political participation levels among university students in Pakistan and
reviving student unions.
