Javid warns of national disintegration: Changes in curricula
By Our Reporter
LAHORE, March 23: Former senator Dr Javid Iqbal has taken strong exception to the government's attempts to change the curricula of the educational institutions aimed at expunging any reference to the ideology of Pakistan.
He was speaking at a meeting held to observe the Pakistan Day under the auspices of the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Foundation and the Pakistan Movement Workers Trust at its auditorium here on Tuesday.
Dr Javid said that a document 'The subtle subversion - the state of curricula and textbooks in Pakistan,' written by A.H. Munir and Ahmad Saleem and submitted to the Ministry of Education, had criticized the present curricula of the educational institutions and textbooks for containing references to the Islamic ideology of Pakistan and Quranic concepts of jihad.
He said that the existence of nations was based on their respective ideologies without which they lose not only their identity but also their very existence.
He said that Pakistan was achieved on the basis of a Two-Nation theory, which meant that Islam was the basis of Pakistan. If this basis was removed, the very existence of Pakistan would be in danger.
The former senator said that the document appeared to have been based on the book From Jinnah to Zia, written by former chief justice of Pakistan the late Mr Munir, who had attempted to prove that the Quaid-i-Azam wanted Pakistan to be a secular state.
Mr Javid said that he had rebutted Mr Munir's contention in his book on the ideology of Pakistan that the Quaid was on record having said more than once that Islam was the basis of Pakistan. Mr Munir had later corrected himself but the document had made no such reference to Mr Munir's correction.
He said that it was unfortunate that deliberate attempts were being made to deny the Islamic ideology of Pakistan, which was a dangerous move, and it must be checked.
He said that the nation must pledge itself on the present Pakistan Day that it would frustrate all such attempts, which alienated Pakistan from its Islamic ideology.
He said that Islam was against sectarianism, fundamentalism and violence. The concept of jihad had nothing to do with sectarianism. Any attempt to change the textbooks by removing reference to Islamic ideology of Pakistan would initiate the process of national disintegration.
Nazaria-i-Pakistan Foundation chairman Majid Nizami referred to a photograph published in Dawn on Tuesday regarding the display of the present rulers' large portraits at Lahore's Faisal Square.
He said that it was shocking to observe that the portraits of the founders of Pakistan -- Allama Iqbal, Quaid-i-Azam and Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah -- were missing on the Pakistan Day.
"We have started forgetting the founders of Pakistan who had worked hard to achieve independence and their goal of Pakistan," he lamented. He said that the problems of the nation could only be solved in the Pakistan which had been visualized by its founders. The gulf between the rich and the poor was widening and the rich were becoming richer and the poor poorer.
The price hike, particularly the high prices of wheat flour, sugar and oil, had made the life of common man miserable, he said. Veteran Muslim League leader Syed Ahmad Saeed Kirmani said that a convention of the Muslim League parliamentary members and councillors at Delhi on April 7 to 9, 1946, had amended the Lahore Resolution passed on March 23, 1940, saying that one independent and sovereign state Pakistan in Muslim majority areas in the North East and North West of the subcontinent and not two states would be established.
He said that the need for recalling the Delhi convention resolution had been felt now as some intellectuals were demanding that the provinces of Pakistan be given powers in accordance with the Lahore Resolution and thus they were creating confusion.
He said that the demand for Pakistan was on the basis of one nation, one state, and not on the basis of one nation, two states. He said that the Quaid-i-Azam had a very difficult time as he was required to organize a nation out of disorganized mob of the Muslims of the subcontinent in the intellectual vacuum caused by the death of Allama Iqbal in 1938 and the declared intention of the British to transfer power to the All India Congress soon after the World War II which had broken out in 1939.
He criticized the present government's foreign policy, which had pawned the country to the US. Labour leader Khurshid Ahmad said that the main purpose of making Pakistan an Islamic, democratic welfare state had not been achieved so far.
It was possible only if the country had a true democracy with a supreme parliament and an independent judiciary. He said that the Supreme Court should take suo motu notice of the people who had plundered the nation.
He said that the over 40 per cent people of the country were living below the poverty line and no sincere efforts were being made to eradicate poverty. Punjab University's former vice-chancellor Dr Muniruddin Chughtai said that the people must not tolerate anti-Pakistan propaganda initiated by the vested elements.
He said that the enemies of Pakistan had become active and there was great need to check their nefarious activities. Brig Zafar Iqbal (retired) said that Pakistan's nuclear programme was in danger of being rolled back because it was liked by Pakistan, which had assumed itself to be master of Pakistan.
Dr Javid said that Wana operation had serious repercussions and it should be stopped. The top leaders of three main political parties were directing their workers from outside the country.
He said that bureaucracy, army, politicians, capitalist and landlords were responsible for the present sad state of affairs of the country. Punjab's former IGP Sardar Muhammad Chaudhry, Col Ikramullah (retired), Dr Abdul Latif Shaikh, Brig Manzur Ahmad (retired), Chaudhry Manzur Ahmad, Ibrahim Khalil, Abdul Rashid, Rana Shan Elahi, Dr Agha Muhammad Yameen, Irshad Ahmad, advocate Chaudhry Bashir Ahmad and Shahid Rashid were other speakers.
