Madrassa bill

A political standoff is brewing as the newly-legislated Madrassa Reforms Bill has hit snags. Perhaps the government's change of heart has lingered on its assent from the President, and now the JUI-F of Maulana Fazalur Rehman which was in a deal with the dispensation in the process of bulldozing the 26th constitutional amendment feels left out. It is strange that the coalition government has gone back on its pledges with one of its difficult allies, and that too after agreeing to the nomenclature of new regulations. The debate now is: whether the seminaries should fall under the ministry of education, or – strangely – the ministry of industries.

The government's intermingling with religious scholars afresh with the express intent of "threadbare discussion" on an already legislated bill has annoyed the JUI-F. The party sees it as a conspiracy to divide the ulema and to backtrack on promises – apparently under Western pressure. Regulating religious schools and their content and curriculum in Pakistan has always been an agenda of concern for creditors and foreign governments, and there are many FATF stipulations too that go on to limit the source of funding to these largely semi-regulated entities.

The Societies Registration (Amendment) Act, 2024 - a new law passed by the parliament under the 26th amendment (which stands challenged in the apex court) introduces regulations for registration of seminaries through the relevant deputy commissioner's office. Some of its salient features are: filing an annual report detailing its education and finances to the registrar; and prohibiting seminaries from teaching or disseminating militancy, sectarianism and religious hatred. The discord between sections of ulema is not on the regulation of seminaries – as they all stand registered since 2019 – but on whether the patron ministry should be of education or industries.

With JUIF threatening to march on the capital, the government is on the receiving end. It has to mend fences with religious scholars and come out straight. The hoodwinking it indulged in was disgusting.