WITHOUT first formulating a uniform educational and health policy for the country, the federal government transferred ministries relating to health and education to provinces after the passage of the 18th Amendment.

The provinces accepted the assets but were reluctant to absorb the federal government employees deployed in these ministries.

Now when provinces are autonomous, politicians instead of pursuing federal policies in this regard started sowing seeds of disintegration in so far as education was concerned.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the provincial government asked for drastic changes in textbooks of educational institutions and historical documents.

The name of M.A. Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, is being removed from books. If this trend of reviving old prejudices is allowed to spread, it will pave way for regionalism on the basis of language, ethnicity, religious beliefs and other biases, shaking the very foundation of Pakistan.

For the time being, this matter may look small, but the irony of fate is that events of greater and deeper consequences always emerge from trifles. Our leaders ought to solve this complex problem before it spreads across the country and results in ‘disintegration of unity’.

RAJA SHAFAATULLAH Islamabad