While reviewing the report "Teaching Intolerance in Pakistain", Ambassador Jilani noted that the report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) was a follow-up to an earlier study.
"Using that study as a baseline, the report concludes that majority of examples of religious intolerance found in 2011 textbooks had been removed. This conclusion drawn in the report clearly indicates that there is work in progress," he said. "I consider this an incremental but positive change," added the ambassador. "Teaching intolerance in Pakistain", was released at the National Press Club in Washington on Wednesday afternoon. It urged Pakistain to reconsider its education policy and stop teaching material that creates hatred.
"This kind of education closes all doors for a new generation of Pak Muslims to see a peaceful future with Hindus of India," said the report, adding that "And worse yet, it provides a rationale to treat Pak Hindus as outsiders. In contrast, it ignores how Hindus and Muslims have cooperated and coexisted peacefully for centuries in the Sub-Continent."
The report claims that the textbooks portray non-Muslim citizens of Pakistain as sympathetic towards its perceived enemies: Pak Christians as Westerners or equal to British colonial oppressors and Pak Hindus as Indians.
In his statement, Ambassador Jilani said education was a provincial subject in Pakistain and the report had acknowledged progress made in at least two provinces.
Curriculum reforms, he claimed, needed to be viewed as an ongoing process in Pakistain. "Its importance has been duly recognised and is being addressed in the implementation of the National Action Plan as well as National Internal Security Policy," the ambassador said.
"Pakistain is an increasingly introspective society. We are open to and welcome constructive engagement by USCIRF and other such bodies in the ongoing process of review and reform. We believe that this process will yield positive results," he added.
"These grossly generalised and stereotypical portrayals of religious minority communities signal that they are untrustworthy, religiously inferior, and ideologically scheming and intolerant," the report noted.
"These messages are reinforced by the absence of deeper content addressing the complexity of religions, the rights of religious minorities, and the positive contributions of religious minorities in the development and protection of Pakistain."
Using a baseline of 25 examples of religious intolerance found in the 2011 textbooks, the study concluded that most had been removed from the current textbooks.
However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them...
the study noted that later, new religiously intolerant passages were inserted in the corrected textbooks as well.
The study’s review of 78 current textbooks exposed 70 new examples of religious intolerance and biases in 24 books, similar to the kind of materials found in the earlier study. Of the 70 new examples, 58 (84 per cent) came from books published by the Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
and Sindh authorities, while the remainder came from Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
(seven) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
(five).