Shifting Islamic text to Islamiat: Punjab HR dept withdraws letter

ISLAMABAD: Punjab’s Human Rights and Minorities Affairs (HR&MA) Department has withdrawn its letter which had asked the Punjab Curriculum Text Board (PCTB) to exclude all Islamic content including Hamd, Naat and topics of the life of holy Prophet (PBUH) from the textbooks of all other subjects including Urdu, English etc and shift it to Islamiyat.

On Sunday, a section officer (HR) of the HR&MA Dept issued a letter to the School Education Department secretary and PCTB managing director announcing the withdrawal of its 1st of April, 2021, letter.

The April 1 letter had directed the PCTB MD to implement the decision taken in a meeting held on 11th of November, 2020, under the chairmanship of one-man commission. The MD PCTB was also conveyed the decision, which read as: “Religious content must be excluded from the books of other subjects and must be restricted to the books specifically intended for religious knowledge (Islamiat/ Ethics).”

The letter had added, “I am further directed to request that compliance may kindly be shared in hard copies and soft formal at (email:……..) for onward submission to the One Man Commission.”

The Sunday’s letter withdrew the April 1 direction. The HR&MA Dept withdrew its letter following controversy over the recommendation of one-man commission and its implementation order in Punjab.

The commission had recommended to the Supreme Court only on 30th of March, 2021, to shift all Islamic content from all subjects including Urdu, English and General Knowledge to Islamiyat to ensure that the non-Muslims students are not made to read Islamic material. It is not yet clear how the Commission sought from Punjab in November 2020 for the implementation of these recommendations, which have not yet been approved by the apex court.

The commission’s recommendations have not only been resisted by the Education Ministry at the federal level, different segments of the society including Islamic scholars, several politicians, chairmen of Council of Islamic Ideology, National Commission on Minoritiesand Muttahida Ulema Board also rejected the commission report.

Even the PCTB MD while responding to the provincial HR&MA dept had said that the Board cannot implement the commission’s direction for the exclusion of all religious content from different subjects and restrict it to Islamiyat, without the approval of provincial cabinet, Muttahida Ulema Board (MUB) and National Curriculum Council (NCC).

In its letter written to concerned authorities on 20th of April, 2021, the MD PCTB said that the “decision” of the one-man commission as conveyed to it by the HR & Minorities Department, was placed before the PCTB’s “BOARD” in its 81st meeting dated 19th of April.

The “BOARD’, according to the letter said, unanimously decided that in order to implement commission’s decision, the PCTB is bound to take approval from the provincial cabinet, MUB and NCC.