Punjab authorities order publishers to withdraw 'inaccurate' schoolbooks or face prosecution

In this file photo, Students listen to their teacher during a lesson at the Islamabad College for girls in Islamabad, Pakistan, October 13, 2017. (REUTERS)

• Publishers of the books banned by Punjab authorities include Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press
• The books were banned over ‘factual mistakes’ regarding Pakistan’s geography and history

ISLAMABAD: Authorities in Pakistan’s Punjab province have given seven working days to dozens of educational book publishers to withdraw their publications from the market or face criminal charges for circulating material that contains “factual mistakes,” a top government official said on Saturday.
The Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) on Thursday banned 100 textbooks of 31 publishers from being used in private schools of the province, citing cultural and religious sensitivities in their content. If the publishers fail to comply with the board’s directions, they may face two years in prison.
“We have given the publishers seven days to withdraw their stock from the market, otherwise we will lodge criminal cases against them as per the law,” PCTB managing director Rai Manzoor Hussain Nasir told Arab News.
He said some of the banned books contain “factual mistakes regarding Pakistan’s map, and the dates of birth and death of the country’s founding fathers.”
“We have found some textbooks with inaccurate translations of Qur’anic verses,” he said, adding that the board is likely to ban more books as its staff are currently examining 10,000 publications.
The PCTB is a provincial regulator that reviews the content of textbooks, manuscripts and supplementary reading material and issues clearance for its publication.
The publishers whose books have been banned include Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Paragon Books and Ameer Haider and Company.
Nasir said the publishers should have obtained a “no-objection” certificate for their publications to serve as school textbooks, but “they did so without the government’s consent.”
While publishers refuse to comment at this stage, the private schools which use their books for teaching said the PCTB had not consulted them before taking the decision.
“This is an arbitrary action, and we demand the board to at least consult us before initiating anything,” Kashif Adeeb Jawadani, president of All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association, told Arab News.
He said that private schools would support the board to ban the books if there was anything in them against Pakistan or Islam. One of the banned books, he said, included material on procreation.
“We understand the reproduction process shouldn’t be taught in primary classes,” Jawadani said, “But it can be made part of higher school syllabus.”