INTRODUCTION OF PAKISTAN MINORITIES TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION

      INTRODUCTION OF PAKISTAN MINORITIES TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION

BACKGROUND:

Our beloved country Pakistan came into existence on August 14, 1947. Pakistani minorities have equally played marvellous role in the Pakistan Movement. Christian members of the Punjab Assembly played their decisive role in the division of Punjab otherwise situation could be entirely different regarding Punjab. In the same way role of Joginder Nath Mandal cannot be denied in the Pakistan Movement. Pakistani religious minorities have always played a great role for the prosperity of Pakistan.

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan in his presidential address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947 said, “We are starting in the days when there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State.”

Pakistani minorities are facing so many challenges in their own country. They are being treated against the ideology of the Father of the Nation. The minority students are going through persecution and discrimination in the education system of Pakistan. Biased Education policies, biased curriculum and biased textbooks are developed and implemented against the religious minorities. Federal and provincial governments have always adopted a biased and discriminatory attitude regarding the faith matters of the minority students. National Education Policies, National Curriculum and textbooks are openly violating Article 22 (1) of the Constitution of Pakistan that clearly guarantees, “No person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or take part in any religious ceremony, or attend religious worship, if such instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own.” In the same manner Article 25 (1) of the Constitution of Pakistan guarantees, “All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law.”

It is so sad that the violation of the Constitution of Pakistan by the concerned quarters has caused unrest and sense of insecurity in the religious minorities of Pakistan. They are forcibly taught the beliefs through the textbooks which they do not follow. Pakistani textbooks draw the attention of the minority students to convert their religion/s. There are biases and criticism against their beliefs, the Holy Books, worship places, personalities and rituals and rites. These textbooks instigate the students against the religious minorities.

Foundation:

Pakistan Minorities Teachers’ Association (PMTA) was founded on August 28, 2004.

Mission Statement:

·         To make Pakistan a state where people will not be judged by their faiths but by the content of equality.

Objectives:

·         To make effort for the unbiased National Education Policy, unbiased curriculum and unbiased textbooks.

·         To make effort for the promotion of national integrity and cohesion through textbooks.

·         To make effort for inclusion of contents like human dignity, respect for humanity, respect for religions, peaceful co-existence, human rights, tolerance, acceptance, social justice, social harmony and interfaith harmony in the textbooks.

·         To remove all sorts of hate based material from the present Pakistani textbooks against the religious minorities that segregate them from the mainstream line and promote intolerance and violence in the society like desecration of the Holy Books, desecration of the worship places, propagation against the beliefs and believers, loss of lives , properties and biases against the personalities.

·         To promote healthy and friendly environment in the educational institutions where students of all faiths be treated and respected equally.

·         To make effort for equal opportunities to receive education for all students without any discriminatory.

·         To make effort for the 20 privileged marks for the minority students as it is in the case of Muslim students who memorize the Holy Quran by heart.

·         To make effort for the subject of ‘Religion’ for the minority students whose constitutional fundamental right is being violated as guaranteed in the Article 22 (1) and Article 25 (1) of the constitution of Pakistan whereas Muslim students are exercising their fundamental right and they opt the subject of Islamic Studies from grade I to university level but the minority students are deprived of their right.

·         To make effort for the denationalization of all the educational institutions which were nationalized in 1972 as the nationalizations of schools and colleges has caused severe damages to the educational, social, economic, political, religious and cultural identity of the religious minorities.

There is utmost need to adopt the ideology of the Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah that he presented to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947. The ideology of Quaid-e-Azam is a blue print but unfortunately the governments in Pakistan have not acted upon the ideology of the Quaid-e-Azam. Pakistan Minorities Teachers’ Association supports the ideology of the Quaid because only this ideology can resolve all the problems of Pakistan which are causing threat to its foundations. Some of the extracts of this ideology are presented here which can make Pakistan a role model state in the comity of nations.

“The first duty of a government is to maintain law and order, so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the State.”

“If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his color, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make.”

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”

“Now, I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”

PMTA is constantly struggling to make Pakistan accordingly to the ideology of its founder that was presented before the creation of Pakistan on August 11, 1947. Let us all be united to make our homeland Pakistan as one of the best nations.