SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Pakistan’s madrasas have gotten a bad rap, especially after Afghan Jihad that ended in 1979. Militant groups affiliated with the Deobandi Islamic movement have made a practice of drawing terrorist recruits from Deobandi madrasas and mosques. And yes, madrasa students support extremist violence in greater numbers than their peers. But public school students support such violence at high rates too. Definitely incumbent government and governments of past were not oblivious to this fact but due to vested interests they failed to take Madrassas into account. After APS attack it was first time Government under military pressure focused on Madrassa terrorism. After a brief surveillance and intelligence reporting it was unveiled that number of Madrassas are being funded by our Middle Eastern friends. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan disclosed that perhaps 10 per cent of all madressas were involved in terrorism. In his media statement on December 21, 2014 the interior minister had said, “Some 90 per cent of madressahs have no connection to terrorism – based on intelligence reports.” By saying so, he implied that at least 10 per cent did have such links, which is the reason madressah reform was a major objective in the 20-point NAP. A month later, on January 18, 2015, he reiterated, “The religious institutions are requested to cooperate with the government to identify potential terrorists.” He also said that if there is any indication of any terrorist activity at a madressah, stern action will be taken immediately.
According to a survey there were 1.549 million students enrolled in these institutions. It also recoded the number of students in inaccessible madrassas as 0.450 million. These madrassas spend Rs 2.7235 billion annually. Only 11,305 madrassas provided their financial expenditure statements but they declined to disclose sources of income. On October 5, 2009, Pakistan’s then interior minister, Rahman Malik, disclosed that there were 20,000 religious seminaries in the country. The above madrassa figures are very alarming and need wisdom and vigilance on the government’s part to formulate a madrassa reforms strategy to ensure proper regulation over these madrassas. The government should work closely with all madrassa boards to bring about changes to their syllabi to incorporate modern day education.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
