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| - Fact Check: Truth behind name change controversy of Pakistan school
Some social media users claimed that a school in Pakistan named after a Hindu was recently renamed in honour of Malala Yousafzai.
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India Today Fact Check
SKKLGS was renamed after Malala in 2012. But recently, after a social media backlash, Sindh education minister Saeed Ghani confirmed that the original name of the school will be restored.
Was a school in Pakistan named after a Hindu recently renamed in honour of Malala Yousafzai? This is what some social media users are claiming while sharing the picture of a school’s entrance that has two boards with different names.
The smaller board has the name “Seth Kooverji Khimji Lohana Gujarati School”, while a bigger board says “Malala Yousaf Zai Govt. Girls Secondary School, Mission Road, Karachi”.
The caption in Hindi along with the picture translates to, “It must have happened like this. Tejo Mahalaya became Taj Mahal, Ram temple became Babri and Kashi temple became Gyanvapi. There are thousands of such stories, but this is the latest.”
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. SKKLGS was renamed after Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai in 2012, but Sindh education minister Saeed Ghani recently said that the original name will be restored soon.
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What AFWA found
According to news reports, the name change controversy surrounding the Karachi school took a dramatic turn after social media backlash. A report by “Samaa” says the Sindh government has agreed to restore the school’s original name after a sustained campaign led by journalists and social activists.
SKKLGS was renamed after Malala on February 6, 2012. Pakistan journalist Sanjay Sadhwani, social activist Kapil Dev, and even Malala’s father Ziauddin Yousafzai requested Sindh education minister Saeed Ghani to respect history and restore the school’s old name. Ghani responded to the appeals and promised to do the same.
I have asked department to submit comprehensive report. Thank you for kindness. The name will be restored officially after due process but surely any other school will be named @Malala which has no such kind of old name. https://t.co/k0M4LVnSDR — Senator Saeed Ghani (@SaeedGhani1) July 8, 2021
Kooverji Khimji is a highly respected name in Karachi’s Gujarati Sindhi community. A philanthropist, he had contributed highly to education and also in the modernisation of Karachi.
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