Islamiat textbook: Court stays publication under old syllabus

Petitioner challenged order from the CM banning the publication of Islamiat textbooks after the syllabus was revised

LAHORE:

Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court on Thursday stayed the publication of Islamiat textbooks for class 9 that follow the old syllabus and sought a reply from the Punjab Text Book Board (PTBB) by May 11.

The petitioner, a local publisher, has challenged an order from the chief minister banning the publication of Islamiat textbooks designed after the syllabus was revised.

Advocate Farooq Amjad Mir, representing the petitioner, submitted that PTBB officials and Islamic scholars had engaged in lengthy deliberations to come up with an acceptable new syllabus. He said the publisher had paid the Punjab government millions of rupees in royalties. He said the board, acting on the chief minister’s directions, then ordered books that followed the old syllabus, without explanation.

Mir said the decision had caused the provincial government and the publisher a huge financial loss. He asked that the decision be declared illegal and set aside.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2012.