جائیداد کا تنازعہ نسل درنسل دشمنی
ناول نگار نے کہانی میں تین بھائیوں کا ذکر کیا ہے جو کہ ضلع خانیوال کے گاؤں ٹبہ والی میں رہتے تھے۔صادق بخش،الٰہ بخش،احمد بخش تینوں بھائیوں کے پاس زمین جائیداد بتائی گئی ہے احمد بخش جو کہ ان سب سے بڑا ہے اس کا ایک بیٹا ہے۔طلال احمد،دوسرے بھائی کی ایک بیٹی ہے بیٹی کی پیدائش پر بیوی کا انتقال ہو گیا اور تیسرے بھائی کی دو بیویاں ہیں مگر اولاد کوئی نہیں۔ان تینوں بھائیوں کا باپ جنگ عظیم دوم میں انگریزوں کے خلاف جنگ کرتا ہوا اپنے ایک بازو سے ہاتھ دھو بیٹھا اس صورت میں اسے حکومت کی طرف سے زمین الاٹ کی گئی، کچھ بعد میں یہ بھائی اپنے دماغ سے اضافہ کرتے گئے۔تینوں بظاہر بہت اچھے بھائی تھے۔ مگر طلال احمد جو کہ دل میں بغض رکھتا تھا، وہ اور اس کا باپ احمد بخش تین ہزار ایکڑ کے امورخود سے ہی دیکھتے تھے۔سب کام بہت خوش اسلوبی سے ہورہے تھے۔تینوں بھائیوں میں بگاڑ تب پیدا ہواجب دوسرا بھائی اپنی زندگی میں ہی اپنے حصے کی زمین اپنی بیویوں کے نام کردینا چاہتا تھا۔ناطق نے بھائیوں کے پیار میں بھی بتایا ہے کہ خون کے رشتے ،سگے بھائی بھی کس طرح جائیداد کے لالچ میں ایک دوسرے کے خون کے پیاسے ہو جاتے ہیں۔صادق بخش ہمیشہ سے چاہتا تھا اور اس سلسلے میں اپنے بڑے بھائی احمد بخش کو بہت بار کہہ چکاتھاکہ وہ اپنا حصہ اپنی بیویوں کے نام کرنا چاہتا ہے اور احمد بخش ہمیشہ ٹال مٹول سے کام لیتا تھا۔دونوں میں بہت تکرار ہوگئی اور بات طے پائی کہ وہ اس سال کپاس کی کاشت پر رقم دونوں بیویوں میں تقسیم کردے گا۔اس تکرار کی وجہ سے اب بھائی ساتھ میں کم بیٹھتے تھے۔مگر احمد بخش نے اپنا...
Textbooks produce specific minds so are believed the best way to promote peace and harmony in a society. Policymakers draw ideological lines for specific goals and educate the coming generations through the contents of the textbooks. Whatever agenda a nation has, peace and social harmony cannot be compromised so syllabi mean to promote nationalism along with integration. Although history and social studies textbooks address coexistence and tolerance but even then many writers share their reservations about some points. K K Aziz (1993) in Pakistan castigated the governments and the textbook authors on ‘distortion’ of the historical events and deleting important segments of history from the syllabi. Mariam Chughtai shared her reservation regarding the textbooks being published in Pakistan. Romila Thapar in India raised objections against the BJP government’s effort of ‘religionising the syllabi’ and tried her best to introduce non-communal approach based on social harmony in the textbooks while writing history books but her effort remained a mere desire because the ‘religiously’ extremist political party occupying the main corridor of the national government and having no compatibility with her ideas refused to accept the undisputed historical facts. Dr. Mubarak Ali opined while writing on the textbooks that ‘defective textbooks create a defective mindset. Ideology limits people from acquiring new knowledge in order to understand the fast changing world’ (Dawn, April 16, 2016). ‘National History’ reflects national point of view to produce a generation who represents some specific land, culture, religion, political ideology, art and social ethics. Children are taught to grow with their own culture, religion and social norms. This study finds that syllabus of the subjects of History and Pakistan Studies produced by the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) aims at educating the ‘national interpretation of history along with respect for other religious groups’ to the posterity therefore no gaps seem in the textbooks of History and Pakistan Studies. Criticism arises mostly on the old textbooks while the PCTB had revised the textbooks massively and all the historical periods including Indus Valley Civilization, ancient India, Sikh rule, etc. Are being taught at the school and college level. The ‘history textbook’ is not a ‘history’ rather it offers interpretation of the historical events. This article further pinpoints some issues such as communal interpretations in the British India, space in the textbooks, administrative, social, political and religious narrations, and the undeniable position on nationalism and patriotism which cannot be overlooked. The textbooks are playing their role in promoting social harmony and this policy has resulted in a coexistence, tolerance and peace in the society.
Comprehension is the basic purpose of reading. The present study intends to explore the English reading comprehension proficiency of grade 10 students of Gilgit city specifically in terms of comparisons across gender, school system and parental qualification. The reading comprehension test developed by Arellano (2013) was adapted for the study in order to measure students’ level of comprehension. The test consisted of twenty-six items followed by four domains of reading comprehension – getting general information, getting specific information, understanding textual structure and deducing meaning from context. The overall reliability of the tool was 0.88. The test was administered to a stratified random sample of 181 secondary school students enrolled for the academic year of 2014 to 2015. The selected sample consisted of male (n=103) and female (n=78) students from private (n=4) and public (n=4) schools, respectively. Inferential analysis was carried out to determine the statistical level of difference between the groups and the hypothesis was tested at the 0.05 level of significance. On the whole, students’ level of attainment in the comprehension test was (M= 26.10%). Moreover, the study found (both on overall English reading comprehension as well as at subscale level) a significant level of difference across gender, school system and parental qualification. Girls, private school students and children of educated parents performed relatively better in English reading comprehension than each of their counterparts, respectively.