ISLAMABAD, April 20: The national committee on curriculum in its first meeting on Tuesday said the controversy about deletion of Quranic verses concerning Jihad from the curriculum was a conspiracy to divide the nation.
A source who attended the meeting told Dawn that Qari Abdul Rasheed, the author of the textbooks for Islamiat, during the meeting showed his surprise at the allegations levelled by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) that the Quranic verses regarding Jihad had been deleted from the textbooks. He dubbed the MMA propaganda as conspiracy to divide the nation for their ulterior motives.
Qari Rasheed assured the meeting that Arabic verses regarding Jihad had not been totally deleted from the textbooks of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC), instead verses like Surra-e-Saff, Surra-e- Mumthehena and Surra-i-Anfall having more content and urge for Jihad had been added to the text in the curricula which was revised in 2002.
Dr Fareeda Ahmad MMA agreed that there was no deletion of verses and chapters regarding Jihad from the Islamiat textbooks and told the committee that she had personally reviewed all the books and found that the MMA allegation had no foundation. She, however, pointed out certain anomalies in the curricula, which were accepted by the Punjab Text Book Board representative.
Education Minister Zobaida Jalal presided over the meeting during which absence of MMA MNA Liaquat Baloch, who had raised the issue during the National Assembly sessions more than once, Aitzaz Ahsan of PPP, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Minister for Religious Affairs Ijazul Haq was badly felt.
The meeting was attended by all the provincial ministers, chairmen textbook boards, representative of the ministry of education and religious affairs and Maulana Najfi besides the academicians.
The committee would submit its final report to the federal government by May 4 for further implementation and necessary orders to take action against the people responsible for creating the controversy.
One of the participants told Dawn that before the commencement of the meeting, MMA MNA Samia Raheel Qazi also lodged a protest for not giving her representation in the committee when she was more conversant about religion than other members of the committee.
The provincial ministers also agreed that in future the correspondence between the federal ministry of education and the provincial textbook boards would be routed through their respective education departments.
The committee also agreed to include the chapters on human rights in the curricula as envisaged by Islam so that the young minds should learn to perform their moral and religious obligations in return to get their rights.
The committee also decided that the respective provincial education ministers would summon the authors to inquire about the overlooking practice in the textbooks, to fix the responsibility and to present the facts to the public so that the real lobby behind the controversy could be identified and brought to justice.
The committee also decided that in future respective teachers would also be consulted while drafting any textbook. The committee also grilled Fauzia Saleemi, the chairperson of Punjab Text Book Board, for the mistakes in different textbooks.
Ms Saleemi regretted the errors and assured the committee that in future she would strictly implement the policy of deregulation by inviting tenders before awarding the printing contract.
About the controversy, Qari Rashid explained to the committee that in April 2003, a four-member committee of authors was constituted by the Curriculum Wing of the federal education ministry to write a textbook of Islamiat to be read in the four provinces, AJK and FATA. After the book was completed, it was presented to another review committee and representatives of all the five Wafaks and other stakeholders.
