History of Pakistan

I've always wondered how history is taught in Pakistan. Do they teach pre-Islamic history? Do they teach the glorious past about Indus valley civilization? After Partition, both Moenjodaro and Harappa became part of Pakistan. Do they feel proud of that?

Pakistan was formed on the basis of religion. But if they study the history of the pre-Islamic era of south-Asia, then it will be clear to them that once upon a time, they were not Muslims.

I had this discussion about history of Pakistan with a friend of mine at his apartment in San Fransisco. My friend knows some Pakistani people in SFO. According to those Pakistani people, Aurangzeb was the best Mughal king. We in India treat Akbar as the best Mughal king.

Then I read an article somewhere (I don't remember the source) about the political unstability, military coup etc in Pakistan. The writer was attributing this to the Aurangzebi culture in Pakistan. Accordng to the writer, Pakistan's history text-books eulogize Aurangzeb as the greatest emperor. Aurangzeb was a ruthless person. He killed his three brothers (Dara, Shuja, Murad) and jailed his father Shah Jahan in order to become the Mughal emperor.

There was some discussion in Pakistan's National Assembly where the religious parties opposed teaching of pre-Islamic history in Pakistan. According to members from MMA, Pakistan's history start from Makkah and Medina. The education minister answered that students should read the pre-Islamic history for the sake of knowledge. The news article about this discussion in National Assembly was published by the Dawn newspaper on 22nd February, 2007.

There are some debates going on about writing correct history in Pakistan. There was an article in the Dawn on July 9 titled History is different from farce. Some excerpts from the article:

Eminent historian and thinker Dr Mubarak Ali says the history written in Pakistan had been “dictated” by the ruling Establishment and represents its wilful perversion of facts “to accord with a fabricated ideology”.

“No authentic history has yet been written about Pakistan and its independence. There is a lot of confusion among the so-called pro-Establishment historians and educationists. Whatever has been written so far is distortion of history and entirely unbalanced,” Dr Ali told Dawn in an interview.
.....
“Some historians negated our ancient Indian and South Asian roots and tried to establish our links with Central Asia or with the Middle East which was historical and intellectual dishonesty,” said Dr Ali.

This article was followed by an Editorial in the Dawn on next day, July 10th. It's titled: A distorted history. Some excerpts:

Our ‘official’ history is riddled with prejudice, inconsistencies and huge knowledge gaps, so much so that there was a time when school textbooks made no mention of the break-up of Pakistan. Even today they offer no detailed account of the causes that led to the creation of Bangladesh — the cultural, political and economic marginalisation of the Bengali people or the atrocities committed in the eastern wing by the Pakistan Army.
....
For many the history of what is now Pakistan seems to begin not with the Indus Valley civilisation but the subjugation of Sindh by an Arab invader, Mohammad bin Qasim. An attempt has also been made to place our cultural roots in Central Asia or the Middle East instead of South Asia and this link, sadly and erroneously, is now widely accepted as fact. Independent research free of official bias is needed to correct these and other more recent distortions of history. Otherwise we may never know where we once stood or where we are now heading.

There is a letter to the editor published in the Dawn today (July 17th, 2008). It's titled: A distorted history.