Facts O-level and facts low level

Young people studying Pakistan studies in matric and those at the O-level have
to contend with texts that contain vastly different themes and issues. In the case of the former, the emphasis seems to be mostly on religion, on civic obedience and the 'duty' of the individual to the state, and sacrifice and conformist behaviour. In the latter, students are taught Pakistan's economic and political history, and told of issues of governance and underdevelopment and how these are closely linked to political economy. At times, the matric textbook reads like a badly done PR job by a government spokesman.
An Investigation into the Political Economy 1948-1988 (Rs 157, pp the 195), the O-level book for Pakistan Studies and printed by the Oxford University Press, was born out of a series of lectures by the author, Nadeem Qasir, who is listed in the credits as being a development scholar at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. The matric book, called Pakistan Studies for class IX and X (Rs 25.55, pp 278), has been published by the Punjab Textbook Board and has been written by Hassan Askari Rizvi, Javed Iqbal, Ghulam Abid Khan and Qamar Abbas.
The matric text has nine chapters: The ideological basis of Pakistan, its establishment its state and government of Pakistan, its land, its natural resources, its people and their culture, international affairs, relations with the Muslim countries and the country as a welfare state.
The O-level book has three sections. The first on political economy has the following nine chapters: underdevelopment, the first decade, Ayub's reforms-I, Ayub's reforms-II, the creation of Bangladesh, Bhutto's reforms, Bhutto's fall, the Zia years and foreign policy. The second, culture, has two chapters:
the culture of underdevelopment and the imprints of the past. The third section has one chapter called disarticulated development.
Students who sit for the matric exam will find that the first chapter of their book is all about Pakistan's "ideological basis". The first thing they are taught is in effect a lesson in religion since all the basic precepts of Islam are mentioned here. From the advent of Islam in the sub-continent, the book leaps to the time of Ghauri (not saying where he came from) and details in five to six pages the history of the Mughals. At the end of the first chapter, students are given several fill-in-the blanks-type and some true or false questions (though the book uses the words, 'right or wrong'). For 'practical work,' students are told to "arrange a speech contest" on the Sovereignty of Allah and the concept of an Islamic state.
The O-level book, on the other hand, starts off its first chapter on underdevelopment, by saying: "Pakistan is today and was at the time of independence an underdeveloped country." However, the author qualifies the use of this term by saying that political scientists "consciously" do not use terms like 'poor' or 'backward' (these might imply value judgments) and instead use a word like underdevelopment, meaning that development might have been denied for any number of reasons, and that it might be possible for the country to make progress.
The second chapter, in fact the next seven chapters, follows as a result of the first, with an emphasis on the lack of development in Pakistan. A chronological discussion of Ayub Khan's regime follows, followed by Bhutto and Zia.
The matric text then talks about the "ideology of Pakistan" in the second chapter. It says: "The common objective of a nation participating in any cultural, political or social movement is known as its theory or ideology. Theory or ideology has great significance in the collective life of nations. The political, social and economic theories of nations form a style of life. Thus the system of national life comes into being due to a specific theory."
While mentioning the Muslim League under Jinnah, the text also says that the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind and the Ahrar were "important Muslim political parties" ignoring the fact that both of them had opposed the creation of Pakistan. Questions at the end of the second chapter contain a multiple-choice section. It has a question which asks students what the objective of the establishment of Pakistan was and then gives the following three choices: to establish an independent Islamic state; to set up an independent democratic state or to establish a secular state. The first two choices would imply that the authors of the textbook, and its publisher, the government, seems to think that an independent democratic state cannot be at the same time Islamic.
The O-level text has a separate chapter on the creation of Bangladesh and talks about it in a socio-economic context. The historical background vis-a-vis the Raj of united Bengal is also given to explain why the events of December, 1971, took place. For example: "East Pakistan constituted nearly 55 per cent of the total population. Yet its political articulation in the state was significantly less.... Also in the eastern province political leadership was not entirely in the hands of big landlords -- as was the case in the western province. A good reason for this was that agrarian relations in East Pakistan were never dominated by big landlords and, as in Western Bengal, political currents were strongly tinged by radical ideas."
The matric textbook, which contains no index, makes no mention at all of Bangladesh. The events of 1971 are referred to in two sentences on pages 66 and 67 and the matter is referred to as a "political crisis" and a "national catastrophe" which "resulted in the separation of East Pakistan from the rest of the country". The O-level text has detailed discussions on the Zia and Bhutto years. Mention is made of Zia's Islamization policies. On page 121, the book says: "A number of things deserve mention as part of Zia's Islamization programme. In schools and colleges, Islamiat -- the reading of some of the Quranic passages in Arabic and learning their translation -- was made compulsory. In the Pakistan Civil Service or the MBBS examinations, extra marks were given to candidates who had learnt the whole of the Quran by heart.... On TV the mullah was encouraged to visibly demonstrate his authority; certainly not for the benefit of Pakistani viewers,... women announcers on TV were made to wear dopattas. PIA take-offs and landings were accompanied by announcements in Arabic. The building of local mosques flourished, and their acoustics improved."
The text ties this Islamization process with Pakistan's foreign policy, saying that it has continued more or less to this day.
The matric level textbook unwittingly accepts this but goes on to glorify this pre-occupation of a foreign policy centered around relations with the 'Muslim world'. No mention is made of the US (our largest trading partner), the European Union or Japan. The United Nations is mentioned but only in factual terms and then in reference to Kashmir. Two chapters are set aside in the matric text, one on international affairs and the other on Pakistan's relations with Muslim countries. No mention is made with reference to economics or trade, the main emphasis being that since Pakistan is a Muslim country, other Muslim countries have excellent relations with it.
The last chapter in the matric text talks about the concept of the welfare state (in the Islamic sense) but does not define what is exactly meant by that term. In a rare frank admission, the book does say that Pakistan has suffered from lack of resources and their inadequate utilization but does not lay the blame anywhere. In fact, it asks students to make "sacrifices for the national interest" conveniently forgetting to discuss what the government needs to do to discharge its obligations.
While the matric book ends with the sentence: "God helps those who helps themselves," the O-level book sums up with a reference to Pakistan's current economic and social problems. It ends with the question whether the "disarticulated capitalism" of the Third World will be able to provide some sort of cementing bond to remove the politician and economic dichotomies of the region.
Water world
This article first appeared in DAWN on June 20, 2000.