Back and forth: Textbook board denies excluding chapters on Pukhtun leaders
Co-author insists he has a notification to prove he was asked to do so.
PTRC says the book carries a portion of ‘Da Rusi Turkistan Safarnama’ (Travelogue on Russian Turkistan), with detailed information on Bacha Khan and his elder brother Dr Khan Sahib. ILLUSTRATION: SAMRA AAMIR
PESHAWAR:
The Provincial Text Review Committee (PTRC) of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has categorically denied allegations to have excluded chapters on Pukhtun leaders for 12th grade textbooks.
According to the co-author of a book, Zubair Hasrat, he received a notification from the Directorate of Curriculum and Teachers’ Education Abbottabad with directions to exclude a chapter on the revolutionary Pukhtun leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Bacha Khan. Hasrat said there is only one chapter on Bacha Khan in the book and added that he still has a copy of the notification in his possession.
PTRC Chairman Professor Fazal Naseer, however, denied Hasrat’s statement, saying the book carried a portion of ‘Da Rusi Turkistan Safarnama’ (Travelogue on Russian Turkistan), with detailed information on Bacha Khan and his elder brother Dr Khan Sahib. Naseer added Ghani Khan’s poem on Dr Khan Sahib was also included.
He explained that a total of 12 chapters had been proposed for the book, while the curriculum could only accommodate 10, terming it the reason why only one chapter each on Bacha Khan and Ghani Khan had been accommodated.
“The writers made a mistake by adding more than one chapter on a single Pukhtun leader,” said Naseer, “but they are not admitting to it now.”
The chairman added the book comprises 200 pages and cannot be increased, saying the writers had crammed it with too many chapters and it is their professional duty to rectify things.
Anyone who has doubts about the matter can go to the textbook board and see that nothing else has been excluded, said Naseer.
Supervisor of Curriculum for the Pashto section, Nighat Seemab, said some people have blown the issue out of proportion for reasons unknown to her. She seconded that it would unnecessarily overload the book if more chapters are added to it.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2014.
The Provincial Text Review Committee (PTRC) of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has categorically denied allegations to have excluded chapters on Pukhtun leaders for 12th grade textbooks.
According to the co-author of a book, Zubair Hasrat, he received a notification from the Directorate of Curriculum and Teachers’ Education Abbottabad with directions to exclude a chapter on the revolutionary Pukhtun leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Bacha Khan. Hasrat said there is only one chapter on Bacha Khan in the book and added that he still has a copy of the notification in his possession.
PTRC Chairman Professor Fazal Naseer, however, denied Hasrat’s statement, saying the book carried a portion of ‘Da Rusi Turkistan Safarnama’ (Travelogue on Russian Turkistan), with detailed information on Bacha Khan and his elder brother Dr Khan Sahib. Naseer added Ghani Khan’s poem on Dr Khan Sahib was also included.
He explained that a total of 12 chapters had been proposed for the book, while the curriculum could only accommodate 10, terming it the reason why only one chapter each on Bacha Khan and Ghani Khan had been accommodated.
“The writers made a mistake by adding more than one chapter on a single Pukhtun leader,” said Naseer, “but they are not admitting to it now.”
The chairman added the book comprises 200 pages and cannot be increased, saying the writers had crammed it with too many chapters and it is their professional duty to rectify things.
Anyone who has doubts about the matter can go to the textbook board and see that nothing else has been excluded, said Naseer.
Supervisor of Curriculum for the Pashto section, Nighat Seemab, said some people have blown the issue out of proportion for reasons unknown to her. She seconded that it would unnecessarily overload the book if more chapters are added to it.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2014.