Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s biography, titled “Dastan-e-Hayat” has recently been approved by the Punjab Archives and Libraries Wing and all public educational institutes and libraries in Punjab have been urged to stock up on the book.
The instance is being viewed as a dictatorial initiative by the government or a servile attempt by the Punjab’s bureaucracy to gain some favors with the ruling party.
No similar instance could ever take place in any leading democratic country. However, Pakistan has previously seen such attempts by the dictators like General (R) Ayub Khan who published his book “Friends not Masters”.
Similarly, after the 2008 election, all traces of CM Punjab Pervez Elahi and General (R) Pervez Musharraf were removed from all school textbooks which were distributed free of cost.
A letter issued to the public libraries and educational institutes by the Punjab Archives and Libraries Wing of the Services and General Administration Department says that the book authored by Tariq Ahmad Khan has been approved. Punjab Public Libraries director-general and directors of public instruction at colleges and schools to convey the government’s approval to the lower administration.
Archives and Libraries Wing Secretary Ahmad Raza Sarwar says the book has been examined and no “objectionable” or “sectarian” content was found in the book. “The book has been recommended to libraries without any instruction to purchase it,”he added.
While he used the word “recommended”, in reality the letter orders the “…heads of the institutions to purchase the approved books out of the funds available with them for the said purpose”.
According to the committee, Nawaz Sharif is a third-time Prime Minister and students should know about his personal life. To further justify the notification, he added that such books aren’t often bought by libraries and publishers have to run about to sell them.
Those in academic circles have termed this as a joke and an effort to please the PM and make money under the government’s umbrella.
It is common knowledge that schools get limited funds and barely get by with such a small budget, but now they have to buy multiple books from their own funds.
A curriculum expert Amir Riaz said:
A book aimed at appeasing the rulers is not written for children to read and comprehend and that such efforts confuse the students.
Another question raised by some people is whether the following governments now follow the trend and enforce their leader’s “life histories” upon the youth.
A Punjab Teachers Union representative said that such books are not meant to be read but to sell and make money. According to him, the schools and colleges face severe pressure from the departments to spend their budget on such things only to have them stored in some cupboard.
On Twitter, the book has been tagged with #SarkariBestSeller and is becoming a popular trend.
Sources: Official Letter, Dawn
