Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s party is set to restore “violent jehadist content” removed from school textbooks in Pakistan’s militancy-racked Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, according to a media report .
After the secular-leaning Awami National Party (ANP) came to power in the province in 2008, education officials removed Quranic verses preaching jehad or holy war and illustrations depicting weapons or violence. Chapters covering Islamist figures and ideology were replaced with lessons on local poets, philosophers or the region’s Pashtun identity.
These drastic changes were introduced by the ANP in textbooks used from the first to 12th grade in public schools.
However, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, which now rules Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami, has announced its intention to “restore violent jehadist content in school textbooks”, Radio Free Europe reported on its website on Monday.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Information Minister Shah Farman had said that the Government will “rectify” what it calls “holes and mistakes” in textbooks published by the previous Government led by the ANP. “What kind of sovereignty, freedom, and Islamic values is this when Islamic teachings, jehad, and national heroes are removed from textbooksIJ Jehad is part of our faith. We will not back down,” he said.