MQM criticizes Zobaida: National Committee on Curriculum
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, April 20: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), protesting against the decision of Federal Education Minister Zobaida Jalal to include members of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) in the National Committee on Curriculum
, has criticized her for not giving representation to it.
Talking to Dawn here on Tuesday, MQM MNA Kanwar Khalid Younus regretted that the government did not include any member of his party in the committee and said that its recommendations would not be acceptable to it.
Mr Younus said it seemed that the government had constituted the committee only to please the MMA as there was no need of it in the presence of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Education.
The MQM leader said that after a thorough debate on the issue of syllabus in the National Assembly, initiated on the insistence of the MMA, there was no need to review the syllabus. He said if the government implemented recommendations of the MMA, then it would be like converting all schools and colleges into "Madressahs".
"On one hand, the government is taking steps to modernize syllabus and education system at Madressahs and on the other hand, schools and colleges are being converted into Madressahs," he added. The present syllabus contained material which caused hatred against the minorities, he said and alleged the MMA of trying to snatch the basic rights of minorities.
Mr Younus said that if formation of the committee was inevitable, then members of the liberal political parties should have been included in it. Moreover, he said, there was no representation of Sindh in the committee. He said the situation in Sindh was different from other provinces as a large number of Hindus and other minorities were living there.
He appealed that the education minister should to give representation to the MQM in the committee, otherwise the committee's recommendations would be considered one-sided.
