Himalayan News Service

Lahore, April 2:

Religious scholars in Pakistan are up in arms at the government’s moves to reduce references to jehad (holy war) and exclude such Quranic verses as could fuel religious intolerance from educational curricula.According to Education Minister Zubaida Jalal, the inclusion of Quranic verses is no longer a requirement in the curriculum, reports OneWorld. When the minister told the National Assembly about the move last week, opposition legislators led by members of the religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), staged a walkout in protest.

The controversy erupted after an independent Pakistani think tank, the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), released a report criticising the overemphasis on Islamic studies in school and college curricula.The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan observed the state syllabus fed hatred against other religions and turned schools into centres of Islamic fundamentalism.

It pointed out the syllabus omitted events that could encourage critical self-awareness among students, and included outdated and incoherent pedagogical practices that “hinder the development of interest and insight among students”.

The government appointed a committee to review the findings of the report, which Jalal rejected as biased. She dismissed allegations that changes in the curriculum were made to “secularise” education under pressure from the US.

AH Nayyer, one of the authors of the report and a faculty member of Quaid-i-Azam University, accused the minister of not sharing the findings of the committee with members of National Assembly.

Before submitting the report to the education ministry, nine members of the 15-member government review committee endorsed the report while six expressed dissenting views on some findings.

Nayyar pointed out governments over the ages were too scared to make any changes in the syllabus, aware of the fact that the move would not go down well with hardliners.

Criticising the revision in syllabi, Liaqat Baloch of MMA alleged, “Under the conditionalities of the US Agency for International Development, all verses containing provisions about jehad or exposing the anti-Muslim prejudices of Jews and Christians are being omitted from the syllabi.”

Hussain Ahmad of the MMA warned the party was likely to move a privilege motion against such government censorship.

In Karachi, students held a protest march against the changes and demanded inclusion of Quranic verses in the syllabi, dismissal of the education minister and an end to US intervention in Pakistan’s affairs. In Punjab, the main teachers union has threatened to launch a movement against the government if it failed to restore the original syllabus.

Parliamentary Secretary for Education Dewan Ashiq Bukhari defended the changes, saying these were made to reduce discrepancies between the syllabus for private schools and colleges and state-run institutes. The government is emphasising science and computer studies as part of changes.

But public outrage at the move is snowballing.