Fazl vows street protests over madrassa bill
While accusing the government of being the primary obstacle to madrassa registration, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has warned that any deviation from the agreed terms in the proposed bill will force a resolution outside the parliament.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday, the cleric-politician recalled the history of madrassa regulation, tracing it back to 2004, when questions were raised about religious seminaries.
Following discussions, legislation was enacted, mandating madrassas to avoid promoting extremist content. However, he criticised the alleged heavy-handedness of intelligence agencies, which directly intervened in seminaries, creating fear and distress.
"In 2010, a new agreement stipulated that complaints against madrassas would be routed through their affiliated organisations rather than directly addressed at the institutions," he recalled.
However, Fazl lamented that despite the agreements, subsequent developmentssuch as the 18th Amendment and shifting oversight of madrassas to the Ministry of Educationundermined the process.
He also criticised the madrassa system's fragmentation, pointing out a need to create 2025 new boards unrelated to earlier agreements or recent legislation.
He went on to allege these actions were meant to destabilise the established system of recognised madrassa boards.
He described a 2010 agreement under which registered madrassas would keep their registration, the government would assist with new registrations, and foreign students would be granted nine-year visas to study in Pakistan.
Accusing the government of failing to honour these commitments, he said that no madrassas have been registered, no bank accounts opened and no foreign students granted visas under the agreed terms.
He cited the passage of the 26th Amendment as an example of consensus-building, adding that both government and opposition benches were on board, even though some major opposition parties distanced themselves.
He stressed that negotiations were central to politics, and solutions emerged through dialogue and reasoning.
Referring to the tenure of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government, Fazl said that he had urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to resolve the stalled madrassa issue.
A consensus was reached with madrassa leaders, and a draft bill was prepared and presented in Parliament. However, he claimed that during the legislative process, changes were introduced without consultation, violating the agreement.
The bill, which was passed by both the National Assembly and Senate, faced objections from the president, who returned it for corrections.
He questioned the influence of "external actors" on Pakistan's legislative process, criticising the government for prioritising international directives over domestic consensus.
He also decried the tendency to cite institutions like the IMF and FATF as justification for undermining agreements, calling such reasoning unacceptable.
In a related development, Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arabia has announced a nationwide public awareness campaign regarding the madrassa registration bill.