LAHORE:  Hearing a case about declaring the holy Quran as compulsory education, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Secretary for Schools Education and gave him last opportunity to submit a detailed report.

A two-member bench headed by Justice Shahid Waheed was hearing a petition seeking implementation of the Punjab Compulsory Teaching of Holy Quran Act and a direction for the government to take all possible steps to enable the Muslims, individually and collectively to order their lives in accordance with the fundamental principles and concepts of Islam.

The Secretary of Schools education Department informed the Bench that steps had been taken before the commencement of next academic year to ensure that every book in any school did not contain any offensive material about the teaching of Holy Quran & Sunnah, Islamic ideology and pious personalities of Islam.

He stated that the procedure for recruitment and training of Arabic language teachers for the teaching of Holy Quran has been finalised and an advertisement will be issued for this purpose. The bench asked how science and arts teachers can teach the Quran. In reply, the secretary said that the teachers who had memorized the Quran by heart have agreed to teach the Quran themselves.

Asked by the court, the secretary said that half of the teachers were being recruited due to lack of funds. The bench asked whether the Chief Minister had not approved the summary of funds. It seems that the Chief Minister will not know about this whole matter. The bench reminded that the reports submitted in the court were not satisfactory. On which, the Advocate General sought more time to work on the report.

Punjab Curriculum & Textbook Board (PCTB) Chairman Lt Gen(retired) Akram Khan had also stated before the bench that steps shall be taken before the commencement of next academic year to ensure that every book in any school did not contain any offensive material about the teaching of Holy Quran & Sunnah, Islamic ideology and pious personalities of Islam.

He said steps will also be taken to remove all indecent and incorrect material or derogatory remarks, or misleading information with respect to ideology, history and heroes of Pakistan and Islam from every book that was to be taught in any school.

At the end, the Secretary of School Education to submit a compliance report on next date of hearing.