This study analyses discourses of Pakistan's national curriculum textbooks for grades 9-12 in the context of developing students' national belonging vis-à-vis inclusive education and global interdependence. Drawing on teachers' interviews and students' focus groups and participatory tools, it also problematises teachers' classroom practices and resulting students' responses in this backdrop. Theorising national belonging as a discursive social practice, the study benefits from Foucault's approach to discourse analysis. The findings highlight a complex interplay of several education system actors for constructing students' national belonging, emphasising an essential relationship between Pakistan and a particular version of Islam. Discursively positioned, the students perceive the world as Muslim versus Non-Muslim and display self-righteousness, evincing strong ethnocentricity towards fellow non-Muslims. The study underlines the implications for not employing education for fostering inclusivity and international collaboration and its consequences for long-term global sustainable development goals (SDGs), 2030.