Staff Reporter
The Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board has seized a Social Studies textbook of grade one for featuring Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.
According to a private TV channel’s report, her picture was published by the Oxford University Press on page 33 of the textbook along with the picture of Nishan-i-Haider recipient Maj Aziz Bhatti Shaheed.
Other important personalities featured in the book included Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, national poet Allama Iqbal, philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi and Begum Rana Liaquat Ali.
“Malala’s picture was published because she is a Nobel prize winner, a spokesperson of the Oxford Publishing Press said.
“The government is conducting raids and confiscating our books from markets across the province.”
Officials of the Punjab textbook boards have, on the other said, said that the book was not included in the Single National Curriculum. “It was never sent to the board for approval,” the spokesperson said.
On Tuesday, the board issued a show-cause notice to the publishing press stating that the subject of Social Studies has not been included in the syllabus of class one.
The action was taken under sections 10 and 14 of the PTCB Act, 2015.
Last year, the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board banned the sale and printing of 100 textbooks for having anti-Pakistan and anti-Islamic content.
More than 10,000 books were seized and the matter was being further investigated, he said.
