SHC seeks reply on petition to teach human rights

Petitioner argues schools should teach human rights "to promote peace".

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court has asked for a reply from the Sindh Education and Literacy department on the petition seeking inclusion of human rights as a subject in the curriculum.

Zubair Ali Khaskheli referred to the Supreme Court’s observations in the Karachi suo motu case and said that the court had also urged for efforts to enforce principles mentioned in the Constitution. He asked the court to direct the federal and provincial governments to include the human rights articles from the Constitution in the syllabi across the country “to promote peace”. The SHC had issued notices to federal and provincial law officers in the last hearing to file their comments.



On Wednesday, DAG Muhammad Ashraf Mughal maintained that since education has been devolved to provincial governments, the federal education ministry was not a concerned party.

Law officer of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Syed Sultan Ahmed, on the other hand, said that the city government hardly plays a role in building the curriculum as only 22 schools fall under its jurisdiction where syllabus prescribed by the Sindh government was taught. Sindh law officer, Miran Muhammad Shah, requested for time to file comments of Sindh Education and Literacy department.

Headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam, the SHC bench directed him to file the replies before the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2012.