100 books banned for carrying blasphemous, anti-Pak content
islamabad — The curriculum board of Punjab province has imposed an immediate ban on at least 100 books with a plan of banning many more being taught in private schools for carrying blasphemous and antiPakistan content
The Punjab Curriculum & Textbook Board’s (PCTB) Managing Director, Raj Manzoor Hussain Nasir, took the decision on Thursday, stating that it had been reviewing at least 10,000 books being taught by private schools across the province.
Addressing a Press conference, Nasir said 30 committees had been constituted for inspection of around 10,000 books recovered from these institutes, including those published by Oxford, Cambridge, and 31 other publishers.
“In the first phase, PCTB has banned 100 books of 31 publishers, including Oxford and Cambridge for blasphemous,
A critical review of the books revealed that distorted facts about Pakistan and its creation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal were being taught to the children Manzoor Nasir
Punjab govt official
immoral and anti-Pakistan content,” he said.
Manzoor Nasir said that a critical review of the books revealed that “distorted facts about Pakistan and its creation, Quaid-eAzam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal were being taught to the children”, while many books also contained
“blasphemous content”.
One important part of the review revelations by PCTB was that Azad Jammu and Kashmir was shown as part of India in maps of some books.
“Instead of including sayings of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal, one of the books carried sayings of Mahatma Gandhi and some unknown people,” said Nasir.
“In a book of Mathematics counting concepts were explained to the young students showing pictures of pigs. One of the books by Cambridge tried to promote crime and violence among the students on the basis of unemployment in the country,” he said.
Moreover, District Education Authorities (DEAs) across the Punjab province have been directed to visit private schools (after reopening) to check if the banned books are still being taught. —