LHC stops PCTB from publishing textbooks of class 1, 8

01 Dec, 2015

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday stopped Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) from publishing textbooks of class 1 and 8.

The court directed the authority to present the final manuscripts of the said textbooks before board members for review and submit the report regarding their decision on next hearing.

LHC Chief Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan passed these orders while hearing a petition filed by Ali Brothers and other publishers.

During the hearing, Managing Director PCTB Nawazish Ali submitted a report regarding manuscript record of textbooks, their final approval and agreements with publishers in response to earlier court orders.

The PCTB's counsel requested the court to allow publishing of class 1 and 8 textbooks, adding that the petitioner-publishers had filed the petitions on baseless allegations.

However, petitioners' counsel Saad Rasool submitted that the board was not following the regulated process for printing and publishing of textbooks.

He said that the textbooks of class 1 and 8 were being printed without getting final approval from Review Committee. He said that it was the reason that a wrong map was got published in grade 8th geography book and Seraikistan & Hazara were depicted as new provinces.

He said that if such mistakes were not rectified in the textbooks then it would affect the children in negative manner.

At this, the court stopped PCTB from publishing textbooks of class 1 and 8 and adjourned the matter till December 8.

It is pertinent to mention that the court had already stayed PCTB from publishing various textbooks for Class 1 to 10.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2015

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