Pakistan: Non-Muslims, our textbooks and Religious Tolerance

Express tribune: The issues that make huge differences to our lives are rarely discussed on our assembly floors. Instead, too much time is taken up by the frivolous or the irrelevant. Against this backdrop, the issue brought up recently by minority MPA Saleem Khursheed Khokhar on the floor of the Sindh Assembly is highly welcome.

It demonstrates that, at least, some of our parliamentarians possess the courage to raise issues related to minority rights and the marginalisation of non-Muslims in the country. The matter is, of course, not an unfamiliar one for most of us. However, Mr Khokhar has brought up an especially pertinent point. He questioned why there was no mention in our textbooks, of persons, who had contributed so much to the country, such as the late Justice Dorab Patel, war hero Cecil Chaudhry — who many believe had his career in the Pakistan Air Force cut short on the basis of his religion — and former Chief Justice of Pakistan AR Cornelius.

We have, in fact, attempted to exclude such important figures from memory and thought. Our children will never learn about the exploits of such men, their love for their country and their contribution to it. As a result, non-Muslim Pakistanis have been pushed aside completely — out of thought and out of mind.

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