Maulana calls govt biggest obstacle in madrassa registration

Islamabad: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman said that the government itself is the biggest obstacle in the registration of madrassas.

Speaking in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman stated that the 26th Constitutional Amendment was passed by consensus, the effort is to resolve all issues through understanding. There are negotiations in politics, both sides explain to each other.

He added that this secret has been revealed today that our legislation works at the will of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Maulana Fazlur further said that there was a bill regarding religious madrassas. “I want to tell the history regarding the religious madrassas bill. In 2004, questions were raised regarding the religious, educational and organizational structure of religious madrassas”.

He also stated that after the negotiations on these questions, when the government was satisfied, a legislation was enacted at that time and it was said that religious schools would be careful that they did not have any sectarian education, that no material that incited to extremism was presented. However, an exception was made for the teacher's academic discussion regarding the comparison of religions.

Maulana Fazl continued to say that later some problems kept arising. Our intelligence agencies used to go directly to the schools. There was a series of intimidation, threats and harassment there, on which serious complaints were raised and in 2010 an agreement was once again reached that no complaint regarding any school would be made directly by going to the school but would be made to the organization that is affiliated with that school.

The JUI chief further said that in our opinion, things were settled, but after the 18th Amendment was passed, the government itself raised the question that madrassas are registered under the Societies Act of 1860. Now, since it has become a provincial issue, you should associate yourself with the federal education ministry, but that act was not made. It was just an agreement consisted of three aspects.

He continued that the first thing is that those who have already been registered will be maintained, the second thing is that bank accounts of madrassas will be opened, and the third thing is that foreign students will be given a nine-year visa for education in madrassas.

Maulana also added that according to the agreement, the Law Minister prepared the draft and brought it to the House. Despite the agreement, changes were made to the bill during the legislative process. The bill was passed on October 21. The President objected on the 28th. The Speaker and the National Assembly made corrections and sent the bill back to the President.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman says that the President did not object to the bill again, there is no right to object again. All the madrasa organizations are unanimous in their position that the act has been made. Speaker Ayaz Sadiq said in an interview that according to him, this act has been made, if the act has been made, why is there no gazette notification? It would be a wrong precedent to bring this bill again and amend it. The President's second objection is not constitutionally correct, now interpretations will not work.