Karachi: Up to 14 top dignitaries of Pakistan, including six prime ministers, were educated in Christian missionary schools in the country, according to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.
The chief minister was highlighting the contribution of religious minorities to the promotion of education in the country.
Speaking as the chief guest at a programme held at St Joseph’s College for Women in Karachi to mark the Independence Day of Pakistan, Shah said that the beauty of Pakistan was incomplete without its minorities.
Besides six PMs including the late Benazir Bhutto, six CMs including Shah himself, two chief justices, and two army chiefs of Pakistan were students of the missionary schools.
People of Sindh believed in the concepts of pluralism and peaceful co-existence with all the communities, he added.
The CM mentioned that Christian and Hindu communities had contributed a lot to the progress of Pakistan as the noble persons belonging to minorities rendered matchless services in the fields of education, health care, and economic development.
Shah said that missionary schools had been maintaining high standards of education which he emphasised as their hallmark.
Shah said that he was proud of the missionary schools as they had a central role in the development and prosperity of the country.
Hindus' contribution praised
He also praised the hard work of the Hindu community of Sindh in promotion of education, mentioning the Narayan Jagannath Vaidya High School in Karachi, in particular.
He also eulogised the services of the Parsi community for setting up the best health care and educational institutions in the province.
Shah recalled that the students who had passed out from the educational institutions established by the minorities actively participated in the Pakistan movement.
He appreciated that these educational institutions continued to render excellent academic services without any discrimination after the partition of India.
He said that Sindh was the land of Sufi saints as historically it had attracted people belonging to different faiths and ethnicities.
He said the teachings of the famous Sufi poet of Sindh, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, stood for humanity and the equality of all the people.
He told the audience that Bhittai’s message had attracted people belonging to different schools of thought, beliefs, and sects.
