Progressive Students Collective

Progressive Students Collective (PSC) was formed in 2016.^[1] Initially students of Government College formed Hegelian Study group to discuss various philosophers and their writings. But the killing of Mashal Khan, student of Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan on the fake accusation of blasphemy by fellow students prompted the group to form a political organization to protect student right in the country.

PSC started organizing in Government College University and Punjab University Lahore in 2017. It focused on the issue of fees hike, harassment on campus and discriminatory policies of university administration against students from peripheries initially and started getting popularity amin students.

PSC began organizing solidarity protests on various campuses across Lahore soon after the Israeli assault on Gaza began. Initially, the protests had a small number of participants, but the breakthrough moment came when PSC announced a protest in front of the US Embassy in Lahore—a call that had not been made by any other organization before. Right before the protest, the Asma Jahangir Conference was held on April 27–28 to celebrate Asma Jahangir, a fierce human rights defender, and to discuss the state of human rights in Pakistan and globally. The conference invited the British and German ambassadors to speak on human rights in Pakistan.

PSC activists attended the conference and called out the German ambassador for his hypocrisy—delivering a lecture on human rights in Pakistan while his country supplies arms to Israel for carrying out genocide and initiates a brutal crackdown against pro-Palestine protesters in Germany. In response, the German ambassador used the phrase "Get out," which offended the Pakistani public, as it echoed the colonial attitude of the viceroy during British rule. This incident brought global prominence to PSC, with media outlets such as The Guardian, BBC, and Al Jazeera covering the story. In the aftermath, PSC launched a nationwide movement under the banner of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee, which sparked successful student-led protests across the country—including a landmark demonstration in front of the US Embassy.

There are six sub organizations of PSC.

1. The Students’ Herald (Publication/Magazine)
2. The Artists’ Assembly

In order to become a member of PSC, one must be in any educational institute i.e. must be a student, must not be part of any other political organization. PSC categorizes its members into "Sympathizers" and "Active Members".

Progressive Students Collective (PSC) has presence in most major city like Lahore, Karachi, , Hyderabad , Islamabad, Peshawar etc.

Progressive Students Collective (PSC) has presence in most major universities like Punjab University, Karachi University, Federal Urdu University, Sindh University, Government College University lahore, BZU University etc.