Pakistan authorities have confiscated copies of a school textbook in Punjab province for printing the picture of Nobel laureate Malala Yousufszai in the list of important personalities, apparently unhappy with the UK-based activist’s controversial views on Islam. The Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) confiscated a social studies book, saying that it was published despite not being issued a no-objection certificate.
The PCTB confiscated the book for grade 7 published by the Oxford University Press (OUP) for printing the picture of Malala alongside that of military officer Maj Aziz Bhatti, who was killed in the 1965 war with India, in the list of important personalities, the Dawn newspaper reported on Tuesday. The PCTB spokesperson, however, denied media reports saying that action against the private publisher was taken for printing a picture of Malala alongside that of 1965 war hero Maj Aziz Bhatti Shaheed in the list of important personalities. The youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala, who turned 24 on Monday, 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, where the local Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan had at times banned girls from attending school.
Besides Malala and Bhatti, pictures of some other important personalities were published 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.
