ISLAMABAD, April 12: Education Minister Zobaida Jalal has said the ministry will review textbooks of all boards to point out objectionable material if any. According to a press release issued here on Monday
, the minister, while talking to a group of students of the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), said no policy of the present government was contrary to the basic teachings of Islam.
She maintained that Pakistan being a sovereign country would never accept any dictation from anybody. She told the delegation that the recent controversy had been further fanned by some vested interests in the country to gain political mileage.
She asked the delegation to urge their religio-political leaders not to politicize education, as the very future of the young generation was dependent on it. The minister accused the MMA of using education and religion as a tool to enlarge their political ambit in the current political situation.
She said the MMA was itself divided on the issue of deletion of Arabic verses from textbooks of biology and added that half of the MMA gave a verdict that it was un-Islamic to include Quranic verses with diagrams of human body and other living beings, while the other group decreed that inclusion of Arabic verses with human bodies and animals was very much Islamic.
Ms Jalal said she would soon call MMA party leaders and remove their assumptions with evidences. Speaking on the occasion, the education minister said the very concept of 'Two-Nation Theory' was present in the syllabus and no distortion of historical facts had been done as was assumed by a section of clergy.
She said at least Pakistan could not afford to hide history from its students. She said Pakistan enjoyed a commendable historical credentials, of which everybody was proud of, and they would remain the same.
She said Islam, being the strongest religion of the world, was being taught in letter and spirit in the educational institutions. She said it was the very indigenous schooling system of Pakistan which had produced renowned and strong Muslims in the country.
