ISLAMABAD April 8: The government and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) joined by the Pakistan Muslim League (N) on Thursday agreed to discuss the changes that the new educational syllabi had undergone.
A consensus was created in the National Assembly after MMA's deputy secretary general Liaqat Baloch raised a point of order seeking a debate on the issue which was supported by the PML(Nawaz) leader Khwaja Saad Rafiq.
Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain in his remarks at the end of the debate said, "Since the matter was of national concern and importance, and not of the ego he could have sent it to a house standing committee, by using his special powers, but he wanted this to be resolved through mutual dialogue.
Kunwar Khalid Yunas of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) said that making changes in the educational syllabi was long overdue and a few things which were unnecessarily introduced in school books during Gen Zia's regime need to be removed.
He suggested that the portions of curricula prompting the alienation of minorities, creating gender bias and distorting history should be removed from the text books.
Minister of State Harraj said, he had held a meeting with Mr Baloch and has told him that the minister for education would be inviting selected MPs as proposed by the opposition along with educational experts within next few days to satisfy them on the government's education policy.
Khwaja Saad Rafiq of PML(Nawaz) said his party had also submitted an adjournment motion against the changes made in the educational syllabi since this issue concerned the future of the nation. He called for removal of those portions from text books which negated the two-nation theory and the ideology of Pakistan.
Dr Sher Afghan of PPP Patriots opposed a debate on the issue before its admission as an adjournment motion, or its referral to the standing committee, on technical and legal grounds.
Dr Fareeda Ahmed Siddiqi of MMA said that the question sent by her on national education policy was left out otherwise the issue at hand would have sufficiently been discussed and covered the syllabi issue as well.
Bilquis Saif, another MMA MNA said, "our education must be in accordance with our cultural and religious needs since the Holy Quran had been sent for entire humanity and not merely for Muslims. She said the minorities were well represented in the house who can plead their case if they felt alienated in education.
