KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party leader Senator Raza Rabbani said on Friday that the federal cabinet, or the federal government, had no jurisdiction to make a decision on curriculum and syllabus of schools and madressahs.

He said in a statement that curriculum and syllabus were on the concurrent legislative list, which had been repealed by the 18th Amendment and “they are now subjects with the provinces”.

Therefore, he added, the federal government had no jurisdiction, whatsoever, to make decision(s) on those subjects.

“If at all the federal government has any such agenda then it should develop a consensus with the provinces at a forum which is provided for by the Constitution under Article 153, ie the Council of Common Interest (CCI),” he said.

He said that the federal cabinet’s decision on Thursday to bring uniformity in the curriculum of private, government and madressah schools, inasmuch as it pertained to the Federal Capital Territory was welcomed.

The PPP leader, who also served as the chairman of the Senate, said the decision of the federal cabinet, in the light of that constitutional position, was limited to the Federal Capital Territory and any attempt to widen its scope would be “an attack on provincial autonomy and in violation of the Constitution which will be resisted by the provinces and all democratic forces”.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2018