LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday once again rejected a report by the Schools Education Department provincial secretary on progress in recruitment process for the Arabic language teachers in order to implement compulsory teaching of the Holy Quran in the schools of Punjab.

Justice Shahid Waheed, who headed a division bench, directed the secretary to remain silent when he tried to justify his report. The bench had previously discarded a report filed by the secretary with a direction to furnish it with a new one.

On Thursday, the secretary for schools education, Ghulam Farid, appeared before the bench with a new report on the matter. Advocate General of Punjab Ahmad Awais was also present in court.

Justice Waheed reminded the secretary that he had already made misstatements before the court.

“Anyway, the whole government is running on misstatements,” the judge observed as if he considered the misstatements of the secretary a routine affair for the government.

“It seems you are such a powerful and blue-eyed secretary of the government that no one can harm you,” the judge asked the secretary.

Justice Waheed observed that the court had directed the government for fresh appointment of the Arabic language teachers instead of training the existing teachers of science and arts subjects to teach the Holy Quran.

The AGP sought an apology from the court with an assurance to submit a satisfactory report.

The bench warned the law officer of initiating contempt proceedings against the chief minister and other functionaries if the new report remained unsatisfactory.

The bench would resume its hearing on March 21.

In this case, the bench had earlier directed the sessions judges of all the districts in Punjab to check in their relevant territories whether the Holy Quran was being taught as a separate subject as claimed by the education department.

The school education department in a report had confirmed that the chief executive officers of the district education authorities visited all the schools (public, private, madressahs etc) in their respective areas and confirmed that the Holy Quran was being taught in every school as a separate subject.

The judge had ordered that the D&SJs or their nominees would not only check whether the Holy Quran was being taught as a separate subject but also counter-verify that the facts narrated by the education department were correct in all respects.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2022