Speakers call for removing hate material from textbooks

PESHAWAR: Speakers at a ceremony on Friday stressed the need for expurgating hate material from the textbooks and creating harmony among all religions to remove sense of deprivation among minorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The ceremony was organised by the South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAP-PK) in connection with the launching of a study report on “Ethic Book in Connection with Religious Freedom and Minority Rights.”
The SAP-PK’s Sikander Zaman and Hashim Raza, All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement (APHRM)’s Harun Sarab Diyal, Bishan Lal, senior journalist Shamim Shahid, Nusrat Ara, coordinator for SAP-PK, and a large number of men and women from minority communities and lawyers attended the event.
Briefing the participants on the importance of the ethic book, Hashim Raza said that book of Islamiyat was not compulsory for the children of minorities and alternately the ethic subject was to be taught to their children.
However, he added that neither the ethic books were available in the market nor there were teachers to teach the subject.
He added that the general survey revealed that situation was much better before 1977 when the subject of Deeniyat was taught at educational institutes.Harun Sarab Diyal said that minorities were being meted out step-motherly treatment and ignored at every platform.