PTI :
This happened when private schools’ association in the country on Monday launched a documentary on Malala for her controversial views on Islam, marriage and her pursuit of the Western agenda.
Apparently unhappy with Nobel laureate Malala Yousufszai’s controversial views on Islam, Pakistan authorities have seized copies of a school textbook in Punjab province for printing her picture along with other important personalities . The youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala is known for human rights advocacy, especially the education of women and children in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan.
This happened when private schools’ association in the country on Monday launched a documentary on Malala for her controversial views on Islam, marriage and her pursuit of the Western agenda, reports the Press Trust of India.
On the same day, the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) confiscated the social studies book for seventh grade, published by the Oxford University Press (OUP).
Malala and military officer Maj Aziz Bhatti, who was killed in the 1965 war with India, were featured alongside some other important personalities on page 33 of the book that included Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, poet Allama Iqbal, educationist Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, first prime minister Liaqat Ali Khan and legendary philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi.
The books were already circulated in various educational institutes and the PCTB, police and other agencies were conducting raids on shops to confiscate copies of the book.
On Monday, a team of officials conducted a raid on the OUP office in Mini Market, Gulberg area of Lahore and confiscated the entire stock of the book.
They also handed over a letter to the press, stating that the book had not been issued a No-Objection Certificate (NOC).
But the book was submitted to the PCTB for a review and to seek an NOC in 2019, according to the Dawn newspaper.
The board, after reviewing its contents, did not approve it for publishing.
The Oxford University Press has published the book despite not being issued the NOC, a publisher said.
