The Sindh government earlier this week decided to include Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s speech of Aug 11, 1947 in the curriculum of classes eight to 10.
The decision to include the speech made by the Father of the Nation in his address to the first Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on Aug 11, 1947 was taken by the provincial senior minister for education and literacy on the direction of former president of Pakistan and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.
The speech — “You are free, you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or cast or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State … Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State” — in which the Quaid explicitly spoke of giving equal rights and freedom to the religious minorities of Pakistan will be made a part of the curriculum in its entirety.
“History needs to be put right back on track and that is exactly what we intend to do now. Sindh has a right to prepare its syllabi so we are including Mr Jinnah’s speech, in its entirety, so that the message remains clear, in the course books of our children.
“The step, besides spreading awareness among the younger generation, would help our young generation face and fight the mindset of intolerance found in many people of today. They should understand that Pakistan was meant to be a secular nation where everyone has the right to follow their religion,” said the senior minister.
It was said that the textbooks with the addition would be distributed among schoolchildren free of cost next year.
