Compulsory Quran Teaching Bill in Pakistan’s Punjab
The bill with the title of The Punjab Compulsory Teaching of the holy Quran Bill 2017 was moved by an opposition member from Jamaat Islami Pakistan Dr Wasim Akhtar in the House last year that was later referred to the Standing Committee on Education of the Punjab Assembly for further considerations.
The standing committee has recommended the bill after long discussions and on Wednesday as a Private Members’ Day, it was set on the agenda of the Day after completion of an hour long Question Hour session and before taking up the Resolution of Public Interests from the private members.
According to the mover of the bill, Dr Waseem Akhtar from Bahwalpur as well as Chief Whip of the ruling Nawaz League in the House Rana Arshad informed Daily Times that in the bill it was recommended that all the educational institutes including schools, colleges, institutes or set up in public or private sectors whether registered or not with the government of Punjab or any other body are bound to teach holy Quran in Arabic reading until fifth class of primary schools and translation of holy Quran from sixth to 12th classes.
The mover of the bill was of the view that untraditionally pointing out the quorum from the treasury benches was a great conspiracy from the ruling Nawaz League to stop teaching of Quran in the educational institutes while the Chief Whip of the ruling party had coined his view that almost 68 legislators of their party were sitting in the House and oppositions members could complete the remaining required number for the quorum easily but they were made conspiracy against themselves.
Anyhow, when the Q&A session on Food and Jail departments was continuing and parliamentary secretaries Chaudhry Asadullah and Faqir Dogar were giving answers to the queries of their colleagues, Waheed Gull of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) pointed out quorum surprisingly. And the Speaker adjourned the session until Thursday.
Source: The Daily Times
