[DAWN] AMONGST the predicament of minorities in Pakistain is the fact that youngsters belonging to faiths other than Islam either have to study the religion of the majority, or learn about Islamic themes that are included in the textbooks of unrelated subjects. As some scholars have pointed out, forcibly teaching non-Moslem students Islam -- either because of the lack of alternatives or through inducement -- violates their constitutional rights. In this regard, it is welcome that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
Textbook Board has begun developing ethics books for the province's minority students.
While ethics is being taught in other provinces, it is shocking that it took KP so long to offer an alternative to non-Moslem students. Even the ANP, which ruled the province before the PTI's rise to power, did not rectify this anomaly. As reported in this paper, many non-Moslem students in KP are forced to study Islamiat due to the lack of ethics textbooks and instructors who could teach them the subject. This brings us to another major problem: while the province has done well to formulate an ethics textbook, who will teach the subject? As our report indicates there is a shortage of qualified ethics teachers in KP. This problem also exists in other provinces.
In order to create a more tolerant and inclusive society, it is essential that non-Moslem students are not forced to study the religion of the majority. With the addition of KP, ethics will now be taught nationwide, hence there needs to be a trained cadre of instructors in all provinces that can teach the subject to non-Moslem pupils. Moreover, minorities must be consulted so that their respective religious beliefs are taught to youngsters instead of ethics should they so choose. Then there is the issue of including Islamic topics in subjects as varied as general knowledge, social studies and English. Of course, this infusion of religious material across the academic spectrum is mostly the work of Zia ul Haq
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...'s 'Islamisation' project. It must be realised that Islamiat is a compulsory subject in Pakistain, hence there is little reason to include religious teachings in other subjects. Doing so poses two major problems: it forces non-Moslem students to study Islam and where Moslem pupils are concerned, this approach can result in diluting the focus of the lesson. Both the issues of non-Moslem students and the inclusion of religious topics in unrelated subjects must be considered in future curriculum reform efforts.