PESHAWAR: The workers of Tanzeem Ahle Sunnat Wal Jammat staged a sit-in outside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday against removal of Islamic material from the textbooks that caused traffic jam in the city.

Carrying party’s flags and banners, the protesters brought charpoys along with them and put those in front of the main gate of the assembly on Khyber Road. Despite heavy rain, the protest continued for several hours.

The protestors chanted slogans against the government and alleged that some elements in education department wanted to impose their western agenda on the nation and mislead the young generation.

The blockade of Khyber and Sher Shah Suri roads, the two main arteries, owing to the protest sit-in outside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly caused the worst traffic jam in the city.

Maulana Ismail Dervish and former MPA Ibrahim Qasmi were leading the protesters, who chanted slogans against the provincial government for removing religious contents including jihadi verses from syllabus and inducting what they called anti-Islam material in the textbooks of nursery to grade 10.

Protesters chant slogans against govt for removing Islamic content from textbooks

Police diverted traffic to other roads to facilitate motorists. Khushal intersection and Grand Trunk Road remained chocked when protesters put their charpoys in the middle of the road. Long queues of vehicles were seen on different roads of the city.

The protest caused hours-long traffic muddle particularly on GT Road. Bumper to bumper jam was seen on GT Road from Suri Pull to Haji Camp Bus Terminal.

The passengers particularly patients, students and employees of various departments were the worst sufferers as ambulances, schools and government department buses were stuck in the muddle.

The passengers including women and children were seen waiting for buses on various bus stops for hours in the rain to reach their destinations.

However, most of the passengers instead of sitting preferred to walk on footpaths during the rain. Police at various points were seen trying to streamline the traffic flow but the jam continued till evening.

The participants of the sit-in said that they would not end their protest unless the government accepted their demands. They alleged that provincial government was following foreign agenda by making changes in the textbooks. Maulana Dervish said on the occasion that material about four caliphs was removed from textbooks.

Later, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar, ministers Mushtaq Ghani, Ziaullah Afridi and parliamentary secretary Fazal Elahi held talks with the protesters and assured them that the government had no intention to make any change in the textbooks.

Speaker Asad Qaisar told the protesters that the previous ANP-led government had make some changes in the textbooks in its tenure in 2006 in the light of curriculum approved by the federal government.

He said that the coalition government led by PTI had decided to examine the designed textbooks and concerns of all school of thoughts would be addressed.

It is worth mentioning that Jamaat-i-Islami, coalition partner of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had expressed serious reservations over changes in textbooks.

JI had complained that anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan contents had been included in the syllabus. The government has agreed to revise the textbooks.

Published in Dawn, October 15th , 2014