ISLAMABAD, 24 September 2005 — Thousands of madrasas agreed to register with the government by the end of the year, said Maulana Saleemullah Khan, head of a delegation, which met prime minister yesterday.
The leaders of the group representing 13,500 madrasas met with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Islamabad to resolve a standoff over a government drive to combat extremism and make the schools more mainstream.
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Ejazul Haq was also present during the meeting.
Commenting about the agreement between the government and the madrasa group, Ejazul Haq said, “It is a major breakthrough.” “The registration of religious seminaries is mandatory and we will not let politicians jeopardize the career of 1.5 million students for their political ends.”
Hard-liners had opposed the measures but changed their mind during the meeting between Aziz and a delegation from the Federation of Madrasas Organization, an official said. Aziz said the decision to register was good for Pakistan and for the seminaries themselves, adding that it would help bring the controversial schools into the educational mainstream.
“Their teachings are not related to violence or any activity prejudicial to the security of the state. They are against suicide attacks and any such activity which brings into bad light our faith,” Aziz said.
The group agreed for registration on condition that the process is approved by Parliament and they don’t have to reveal their sources of funding, a representative of the schools said.
Qazi Abdul Rashid, president of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris-il-Arabia for Punjab province, said the schools would sign up if the National Assembly and all four provincial assemblies approved the order handed down by President Pervez Musharraf. He also said the agreement was conditional on the schools not revealing their sources of funding.
“The prime minister has assured us that the government will address our reservations and objections,” he told a news conference.
However, the schools’ refusal to reveal their sources of income — mostly from private donors in Pakistan, but also from other Islamic countries — could raise doubts about the effectiveness of the registration drive.
Pakistan renewed a long-delayed campaign to have official oversight of the madrasas after it emerged that at least one of the bombers in the July 7 attacks on the London transport system visited a madrasa in Pakistan linked to an outlawed militant group. Pakistan’s madrasas have been accused of being breeding grounds for extremism.
State-run APP news agency quoted Aziz as welcoming the madrasas’ agreement to register by the end of the year, saying they had displayed a “responsible and constructive attitude.”
Asked whether madrasas would register by Dec. 31, Rashid said they would sign up as soon as Parliament approved the legislation.
“If the government gets the ordinance approved, we will start registering straight away,” he said.
Rashid said that the government had agreed it would accept all applications for registration of madrasas without objection, and would not interfere in their “internal matters” and activities, including their curricula.
The government wants the schools to teach a range of subjects, including science, computing and the English language, as well as Islamic studies.
