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Introduced by the Imran Khan administration (2018-2022), the controversial Single National Curriculum (SNC) represented a final institutional attempt to preserve a state-curated national narrative dating back to the 1970s.
By the 2010s, this identity framework had begun to fracture under the weight of escalating sectarian violence, unprecedented Islamist terrorism and fraying civil-military relations. The Islamist violence intensified alongside growing political friction between the military and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led government that took power in 2008. The resulting instability triggered a national debate over the state’s religious narrative.
The conflict between the state and the Islamists exposed a stark ideological contradiction: anti-state extremists were utilising the exact same Islamist rhetoric that the state, mainstream religious parties, and centre-right groups had been championing, especially ever since the 1980s.
This forced a fundamental questioning of state-sponsored Islam, particularly its presence in school textbooks.
