SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
A group of religious seminaries belonging to different schools of Islamic jurisprudence has refused to cooperate over madrassa reforms until the government reveals names of the madrassas receiving foreign funding. They have flatly refused to acknowledge any scenario in which a madrassa is linked to extremism; despite evidence being paraded in front of their eyes. They have rejected the idea of seminary syllabus law reform in clear terms and have given thinly veiled threats to the government in case it tries to enforce its decisions. The only thing they agreed to was the registration of these seminaries with the government, seeing as they already registered with the government through a basic form, and that to, begrudgingly.
Tanzeem-ul-Madaris said in a statement that government cannot impose its new laws on madrassas, he said, adding that the seminaries would cooperate with the government if it went with the old agreement of reforms between the clerics and the PPP-led government in 2010-11. Under the project, the government had approved Rs5.7 billion for the madrassas that agreed to introduce reforms in religious education by also imparting contemporary education to their students. The aim was to facilitate 8,000 willing ‘deeni madaris’, documents revealed. Government forwarded the new madrassa registration form to five main seminary boards, a majority of them have not made any decision either to accept or reject it, thus, not cooperating with the government even on the least controversial of actions regarding seminary reform.
Ironically, after stonewalling government requests for dialogue and threatening deadly consequences if the status quo is changed, the collective body of all the five Wafaqul Madaris – the Itehad-i-Tanzeematul Madaris Deenya (Itehad), claim that a lack of direction and dialogue on part of the government is holding back any decision. The truth remains that these seminaries do not intended to loosen their control over these institutions at all, since this vast, unregulated education system is the source of riches and prestige, as well as several other benefits received from foreign lands. The blame on the government is a smokescreen. Most of the boards have yet to formally discuss the registration form and the ones that have discussed it have quite eloquently rejected it as “bureaucratic trash”. That phrase is perhaps the most cogent objection these boards have articulated to the new registration regime, since none have presented any arguments on why it should not be adopted.
The new form, which was prepared by the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Religious affairs, after consultation with the five boards, seeks wide-ranging information ranging from the housing facilities at the seminaries, details of teachers, ownership of the land and sources of funding, foreign funding and even details related to foreign students and teachers. None of this is overbearing or imposing in any manner, the seminaries just have to provide information. In fact it can be argued that the form does not go far enough, considering the innocent lives at stake. The Itehad must conform to the NAP, it remains the only institute fighting change. No wonder people associate it with terrorism. The fact is that those critical of the situation say that since the government had approved Rs5.7 billion for the madrassas, everyone wants his/her share of the pie. Clerics didn’t want to let loot go either. So the best practice would be that names of all those madressas who got the money as well as those who get foreign funding must be disclosed to public. One wishes someone pressurize the government to get the list of Madrassas linked to terrorism out in the open. After all, why to keep the list secret?
pakistan.shafaqna.com
