KARACHI: Sindh Senior Minister for Education Nisar Khuhro on Tuesday showed his concern over some sections in a history textbook used in several schools here following the Cambridge curriculum.

The latest edition of a textbook published by Peak Publishing Limited of London, titled The History & Culture of Pakistan, by Nigel Kelly in a portion with ‘Family feuds’ as the subheading says:

“In September 1996 Murtaza was killed in a police ambush at his residence in Karachi. None of the policemen involved were arrested and some were later promoted. A judicial review suggested that there had been government involvement in the killings and this further undermined support for Benazir Bhutto.”

In another chapter on ‘Policies: Inflation, Unemployment and Drug Trafficking’, there is a subheading ‘Problems in Sindh’ under which it is written:

“In order to win MQM support to form a governing coalition, Benazir Bhutto had promised to protect the interests of all the people of Sindh, not just Sindhi-speakers and to stamp out violence. But she was not able to do this and tension between Sindhis and muhajirs continued.

“On 30th September 1988 gunmen on motorbikes, believed to be Sindhi militants, fired into crowd in Hyderabad, causing 250 casualties, mostly muhajirs.”

Minister Khuhro said the portions were creating a wrong impression while distorting history. Taking notice of the matter, Mr Khuhro has issued directions to omit the portions from the textbook and told the Directorate of Private Schools Karachi to continue monitoring curriculum material to keep a check on such things.

When contacted by Dawn, registrar of Sindh Private Schools Rafia Mallah said that the senior minister was absolutely correct in his observations regarding the portions in the textbook.

“They have twisted the facts to make them seem like something else. We were in a meeting with Mr Khuhro about this on Tuesday, too. We would now be writing to Cambridge International Examinations country director Uzma Yousuf with another letter to the federal ministry to review the textbook and look into updating the material,” Ms Mallah said.

“After examining the textbook closely, we have also realised that its first edition came out in 2004. Gen Musharraf was president then. Obviously it must have had an impact on how things should be portrayed abroad, too, therefore dictators in the treatise have been showed as heroes. So another proper review is very much in order.”

Meanwhile, when Dawn shared via email the two portions with historian scholar Dr Mubarak Ali, he didn’t see anything wrong with them.

“Both events are correct. There is no distortion. The only problem is that except for newspaper reports and comments and in the absence of any inquiry, there is no hard evidence. This is how history is silenced not by mentioning the events at all,” Dr Mubarak concluded.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2015

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