Minority MPA – Sindh Assembly
Mr. Ishwar Lal MPA belonging to the minority community was beaten by other MPAs belonging to marity community for writing a message to a woman MPA in the Parliament. The complaint was brought under rules and procedures of the parliament house.                Daily Times June 27, 2006

Institutionalized discrimination
Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination based on Religion or Belief.                                                                                                                       Article 5

5.1 The parents or, as the case may be, the legal guardians of the child have the right to organize       the life within the family in accordance with their religion or belief and bearing in mind the moral       education in which they believe the child should be brought up.

5.2 Every child shall enjoy the right to have access to education in the matter of religion or belief in       accordance with the wishes of his parents or, as the case may be, legal guardians, and shall       not be compelled to receive teaching on religion or belief against the wishes of his parents or       legal guardians; the best interests of the child being the guiding principle.

5.3 The child shall be protected from any form of discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief.       He shall be brought up in a spirit of understanding, tolerance, friendship among peoples, peace       and universal brotherhood, respect for the freedom of religion or belief of others and in full       consciousness that his energy and talents should be devoted to the service of his fellow men.

5.4 In the case of a child who is not under the care either of his parents or of legal guardians, due      account shall be taken of their expressed wishes or of any other proof of their wishes in the      matter of religion or belief, the best interests of the child being the guiding principle.

• Qandeel, a Christian girl candidate was deprived of admission in King Edward’s Medical College    Lahore though she deserved on the merit. Muslim students could get 20 extra marks on account    of remembering the holy Quran by heart. The appeal is pending before Lahore High Court.
                                                                                                                             NCJP report

• Students belonging to religious minorities of Elementary Girls’ College Quetta complained that    Khalida Saleem, a Muslim teacher treated them in discriminatory manners. She was accused of    passing derogatory remarks for the girls belonging to religious minority and did not allow them to    take part in college activities.                                                                               NCJP report

Education policy and curriculum reforms
During 2005 – 2006, the Ministry of Education was reported to be working on the war footing under the leadership of General (Rtd.) Javed Ashraf Qazi. Some public statements also invited few agitations by religio – political groups. However, when the dust settled after all hue and cry over, the so called Education reforms exercise proved to be a media circus. Policy and curriculum wings worked independent of each other with least coordination among themselves. The scheme ensured that while the maximum funds are used in the exercise, it would not bring any change in the policy.

National Commission for Justice and Peace a letter was sent to the Federal Minister for Education on January 22, 2007 as a response to the White Paper issued by the Ministry of Education. The letter also complained about Church based and civil society organizations, having vast experience in education being ignored in the review of the curriculum and policy process.

Justice and Peace Commissions (Episcopal and Major Religious Superiors), organized a National Education Conference which included educationists, heads of schools and human rights activists discussed the standard of education, curriculum and education policy in the country. In a press release following concerns were raised with regards to the White Paper.

‘We found the White Paper issued by the government to be highly controversial and problematic with regard to achieving universal free and compulsory education (mass literacy) and producing quality citizens through quality education.

After deliberations on all important aspects concerning education we would like to invite the attention of the government as well the masses of Pakistan through the following demands:

1. The time given for Feed Back to the people was extremely short therefore we strongly demand     that the time for feed back should be extended from January 15th, to March 15th, 2007.

2. The goals set out by the government regarding Mass literacy, Quality education and Higher      Education will continue to be in jeopardy, if education is not seen and implemented as a birth      right of all Pakistanis. The cost of education has to be brought down by making adequate      budgetary allocation. While we appreciate the role of International donors, we strongly feel that      peoples’ education cannot be left at the mercy of private sector and foreign donations. We      demand that the budget allocations for education be increased to 8 to 10 % of the GDP. The      resources should also be spent on improving management infrastructure and methods.3. The      White paper fails to recommend concretely removing prejudices and biases on the account of      religion, sect and gender in the curriculum necessary to creating a tolerant society and moderate      social behavior. A separate syllabus of Islamiyat for Shia and Sunni has not been suggested to      be removed.

4. The White Paper suggests teaching Islamic Studies as a compulsory subject and the subject of     Ethics for non-Muslim students which is highly objectionable because in the syllabi for Ethics,     other religions are taught from Islamic point of view. Practically speaking the proposal isolates     and enhances discrimination against the minorities and technically speaking tantamount to be no     option because of non availability of books, teachers and bad curriculum.

In a multi-religious society (Pakistan) curriculum should focus on Universal human values and the religious education can be the responsibility of the family and the respective religious community institutions. We understand that it is difficult for the government to arrange for religious education of student each community according to their respective faiths, which is otherwise their right under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child signed by Pakistan (1990).

Therefore we recommend in strongest terms that religious studies should be only given at College and University levels as optional subject but not as a compulsory subject. Moreover the lessons must show equal respect to all religions, or, a reference to one religion should be avoided in all subjects.

5. Besides measures for making teaching a respectable profession by providing teachers with good     working conditions and emoluments, it would be important to stamp out corruption, mal     functioning and indiscipline in the education departments before any education policy can bring     some dividends.

6. The current literacy drive is focusing enrollment of all school age children, which is basically a     good approach. However in the absence of long term and broad based policy on mass literacy the     drop out rate has been enormously high (over 50 per cent) which is failing the scheme. A serious     consideration needs to be given to this issue.

7. We recommend that education in mother tongue should be extended to primary classes as      recommended by the UNESCO.

8. We also condemn the recommendation 2 on page 44 of the White paper and recommend that a     uniform syllabus should be introduced in all schools.’