By Zubeida Mustafa

For decades the textbooks used in Pakistan’s educational institutions, especially the ones used in the public sector, have drawn serious criticism from experts and concerned citizens. Besides being shoddily produced, the textbooks lack creativity and fail to stimulate a child’s imagination. The most serious charge against them is that the content, wholly or partially, is biased, selective and inculcates in the child a parochial and subjective outlook. The charge is primarily levelled against the textbooks for the disciplines of History, Pakistan Studies and Islamiat, but is not confined to these subjects. For the most part the content of these textbooks seeks to stem analytical thinking and follows what some have described as the “curriculum of hatred”. In addition to creating a sense of nationhood grounded in religion, these textbooks have served to entrench denominational thinking that leads to religious bigotry.

Islamabad, April 20, 2012: Two years after the passage of 18^th Amendment to the Constitution, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) is yet to be devolved. There is little clarity on the sequencing of its devolution to the provinces; and how such a transition will be managed needs to be seen, concluded experts at a roundtable organized by the Jinnah Institute.

They were discussing devolution and the future of the HEC, as part of Jinnah Institute's Open Democracy Initiative. In his opening remarks, Raza Rumi, Sr. Policy Adviser JI said that devolution presented new opportunities and challenges; however the Pakistani state was not deft at change management. HEC's devolution hinged on the political economy of devolution; and required informed policy debates and consensus building.

By Madeeha Ansari

In this Issue: The pressures and potential of a burgeoning population and recommendations to avert future crises.

The “population bomb” is no longer a leading cause for concern in the developed world, where falling overall birth rates and low average births per woman have changed the way planners think. Not so for many developing countries like Pakistan and India, which are projected to be among the nine countries which will account for half of the world’s population of 7 billion, between 2005 and 2050. The following is an analysis of the consequences of rapid population growth in Pakistan, if it continues along its current trajectory.

Please follow link to view full text of policy brief - Population in Pakistan: Holding the seams together

Saba Imtiaz / Madeeha Ansari

The roots of violence in Balochistan can be traced to multiple sources, from political unrest, to sectarian strife, to a severe development deficit. In two parallel analyses, JI provides an insight into the triggers for conflict and separatist sentiment in the largest province in Pakistan.