Monday, April 15, 2013
Subject: “Request for special arrangement to conduct grade 9 and grade 10 examinations of the student of Joseph Colony, Lahore.”Letter to Professor Anjum James Paul Chairman PMTA from Mr. Anwar Farooq, Controller of Examinations, Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education No.1241-CE/P, Dated April 11, 2013.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Role of minorities included in the Pakistani textbooks by the efforts of PMTA
Pakistan Christian Post
http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com
Faisalabad: April 13, 2013. (PCP) Professor Anjum James
Paul, Chairman Pakistan Minorities Teachers’ Association (PMTA) in a press conference
has stated that there is improvement in the Pakistani textbooks as the
authorities are now playing their responsible role for a moderate Pakistan so
that Pakistani people may live in a peaceful coexistence regardless of
religion, creed, colour and caste. PMTA has been demanding that the role of
minorities in the creation and construction of Pakistan must be included in the
textbooks so that culture of social and interfaith harmony be promoted. Three
pages have been included in the Pakistan Studies textbook for grade 10 on the
role of minorities in Pakistan. Pakistani national heroes from the Christian,
Hindu, Sikh and other minority communities are now part of the textbook who
have played their role in the judiciary, education, defence, health and sports
etc. A part of the speech of the founder of Pakistan that he delivered in the
Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947 has also been included in the
same textbook. The Quaid-e- Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his speech said, “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are
free to go to your mosques or to any other place or 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” Role of minorities in the creation of
Pakistan is being included in the forthcoming textbooks. Topics on human rights, peace, tolerance,
co-existence, forgiveness, patience and service to humanity have been included
in the textbooks and biases have been reduced somehow.
There are pictures of
the church, temple and Gurdowara besides mosques and related information in the
subject of General Knowledge grade I. In the early textbooks it was written
that Pakistan is the land of Muslims but now it is written that Muslims,
Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Parsees live in Pakistan. This has also been
included in the same book of General Knowledge grade 1. The word “Masih”,
“Masihi” or “Masihyiat” is being used now in the textbooks and in the
electronic and print media instead of “Esa”, “Esai” or “Esayiat” for Jesus
Christ, Christian/s or Christianity. Academic staff from the r minorities has
been somehow invited to set the paper/s for the Board of Intermediate &
Secondary Education.
Professor Anjum James
Paul went on saying that the subject of Arabic is optional now on our demand.
Instead of Islamic Studies, the subject of Ethics has been introduced for the
minorities’ students. Efforts are being made that there must be subject of
religion instead of Ethics because there is violation of Article 22 of the
constitution of Pakistan, Article 26 (3) of the United Nation Declaration of
Human Rights, Article 18, Article 26 and Article 27 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 2 and Article 14 of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Experts and
educationists from the minorities are playing their role as authors, as members
of the Provincial Review Committee, as members of Textbook Review Committee and
as members and conveners of the Subject Wise Technical Evaluation Committee.
The Government of the
Punjab had to reverse her order and the Non-Muslim Educators were exempted of
compulsory training of Qirat (recitation) of Holy Quran on August 12, 2009. Mr.
Muhammad Latif Khosa, the Governor of Punjab, being the chancellor of the
universities of Punjab directed all the Vice Chancellors of the Public Sector
Universities to provide the facility of drinking water in the universities
examinations centres during the month of Ramadan on the demand of the PMTA on
August 4, 2012.
On the request of PMTA, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad
relaxed a one day off to the Christian students in the MA/ M.Ed workshop on the
Easter Day on April, 12, 2009 and March 31, 2013.
PMTA Chairman said
that ‘A White Paper on Education in Pakistan was published in September 2007’.
This is a document to debate religious bias, general standard of textbooks and
education policies in Pakistan. There is research on 51 textbooks in the
subjects of Civics, English, Ethics, Islamic Studies, Pakistan Studies, Social
Studies and Urdu from grade I-XII. This has been prepared by PMTA Chairman
Professor Anjum James Paul. He again published ‘A Review on Textbooks and National
Curriculum Recommended by the Ministry of Education in 2010’.
In the end Professor Anjum
James Paul said that there is always dawn after a dark night. We have to make
more efforts for the human rights of the oppressed and suppressed minorities of
Pakistan. There is still discrimination with the students of minorities in many
ways. But we must all be united to play our best role for a peaceful world. We
have to start human dignity and human rights from our families and country. We
can only raise our voice for the human dignity and human rights beyond the
boundaries of Pakistan when we have respect of human beings and human rights in
our homeland Pakistan.
Note:
Professor Anjum James Paul is Head of the Political Science Department in a
Public Sector Postgraduate College in Pakistan. He has been raising voice for
the human rights for the last two decades. He established Pakistan Minorities Teachers’ Association in
2005 to eliminate all forms of discrimination from the education system and
educational institutions of Pakistan. There have been so many achievements from
the platform of PMTA In a short period. Being an educationist he has strong
relations with the policy makers. He is the member of the Textbook Review
Committee of the Punjab Textbook Board and convener of the Subject Wise
Technical Evaluation Committee of the Punjab Curriculum Authority.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Subject: “Petitions from Punjab” Letter to Professor Anjum James Paul from President’s Secretariat, Aiwan-e-Sadr Islamabad, Dated 1st April, 2013 No.4378/2013/Petition/Punjab Note: The reply is of the letter on the subject, “Issuance of Notification of Holidays for the Christian Employees Serving in the Federal and Provincial Departments.”
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