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LAHORE: MPA Shakeela Javed Arthur, the first minority member of the Punjab Education Curriculum, Training and Assessment Authority (PECTAA), has said that religious education textbooks for minority students have been introduced regularly from the academic session 2026-27.
Speaking at a press conference at the Lahore Press Club here on Wednesday, ShakeelaJaved Arthur said the main objective of the textbooks was to provide non-Muslim students with education according to their own beliefs and religions instead of ethics or other alternative subjects.
According to her, ethics had previously been taught to non-Muslim students as an alternative to Islamic Studies. Now, religious education has been introduced as a regular subject for students belonging to seven minority religions: Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Kailash, Baha'i, Parsi and Buddhism. Students belonging to these religions will be able to study books based on their respective faiths and take examinations in the same subjects during their annual examinations.
She said religious minority communities across the country were happy with what she described as a positive step towards equal rights and educational inclusion. She added that the initiative would promote peace, security, brotherhood, tolerance, religious harmony and national tolerance. She said the implementation of religious education textbooks had also been discussed in the context of the National Action Plan, under which the need for consensus among state institutions had been emphasized. She added that the initiative was made part of the “Peegham-e-Pakistan” programme of Saiban Pakistan. Shakeela Javed Arthur said the initiative had been implemented on the special instructions of CM Punjab and with the attention of Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat.
