ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – After fending off protests from the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, the Pakistani government faces new challenges. It is a potential agitation led by Fazal-ur-Rehman, leader of the religious group Jamiat Ulemae. -Islam Fazl (JUIF) Party.
Rehman, a veteran politician and member of the ruling coalition that ruled Pakistan from April 2022 to August 2023, urged the government to approve a bill introduced in October to amend the registration process for religious seminaries. I’m looking for.
In October, the bill was passed along with the controversial 26th Amendment. The bill was moved by the government and needed the support of JUIF MPs to do so. The bill provides parliamentary oversight over judicial appointments.
However, when the bill reached the president for final approval, President Asif Ali Zardari raised “technical objections” and sent the bill back to parliament for further consideration. Since then, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government has also expressed concerns about the bill, sparking a standoff.
Rehman has since held talks with government officials, including Sharif, arguing that the current law governing religious seminaries undermines their autonomy.
He warned last week that backtracking on his party’s commitments could further destabilize Pakistan’s already unstable political situation.
“We want to create an atmosphere of trust. It is the government’s responsibility to improve the situation, but the government seems to be inciting people to extremism and protests,” Rehman said in Peshawar. .
So what does the current law provide, and what will the new bill do? What concerns does director Zardari and others have? And what happens next for this bill and Pakistan’s divided polity?
How have seminaries been historically governed?
The debate over the registration of religious seminaries, also known as madrasas, has long been a contentious issue in Pakistan.
Historically, seminaries were registered at the district level under the colonial-era Societies Registration Act of 1860. This decentralized system gave the government little control over seminaries’ curriculum, activities, and funding.
In particular, state or federal education authorities had no oversight of seminaries, and seminaries dealt only with local officials.
Over time, concerns grew over the inability to effectively monitor the curriculum, finances, and activities of these schools.
Why have stricter regulations been introduced?
The turning point was the 9/11 attacks and the start of the so-called “war on terror” by the United States. Pakistan sought to reform seminaries under military leader General Pervez Musharraf.
It has emerged that many of the men who joined militant groups such as al-Qaeda, or who later founded Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), were former students of Pakistani madrassas, leaving the government with no plans for reform. It has been declared “essential.” For national security.
Following the deadly TTP attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014, the Pakistani government introduced the National Action Plan. This is a comprehensive document aimed at overseeing the registration of religious persons, among other proposals. Seminary.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental money laundering and financing watchdog established by the G7 in 1989, has announced that from 2018 to 2022 it will place countries on the “grey list” of countries that are not fully compliant with regulations. ” included Pakistan. Countries on the gray list risk losing important foreign investment.
One of FATF’s demands before removing Pakistan’s name from the list was for the government to bring religious seminaries under control to ensure transparency in financial management.
In 2019, under former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI government, seminaries were reclassified as educational institutions and placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education.
This led to the creation of the Directorate General of Religious Education (DGRE), currently headed by Ghulam Kamal, a former two-star general and counterterrorism expert.
The DGRE mandated annual audits and expanded the seminary curriculum to include subjects such as mathematics and science.
Since its founding, over 18,000 seminaries and 2 million students have enrolled.
However, many seminaries, including those affiliated with JUIF, refused to participate in the system and continued to operate under the Societies Registration Act.
What does the bill proposed by JUIF include?
Amendments to the Association Registration Act by JUIF have returned responsibility for seminary registration to the district vice-chairmen and removed oversight by the Ministry of Education.
The bill also proposes allowing seminaries with multiple campuses to register as a single institution, which JUIF argues would reduce government intervention and protect the autonomy of seminaries. are.
What is the government’s opposition?
Religious Affairs Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain defended the government’s resistance to approving the JUIF bill.
In a statement released by the Ministry of Religious Affairs last week, Hussein said the government wants education-related matters, such as the registration of seminaries, to remain under the jurisdiction of the Ministry.
Al Jazeera contacted Hussein and Information Minister Ataullah Talal for comment on the controversy and explained why the overwhelming majority in parliament He asked for comment on whether he supported the bill. Neither responded.
However, at a recent conference held in Islamabad earlier this week, government officials and religious leaders expressed concerns about the changes proposed by JUIF. Information Minister Tarar insisted there were “legal complexities” in the bill but called for further consultation, without giving details.
Federal Education Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui also added that rolling back the existing registration mechanism is out of the question, stressing that such a move is not in the country’s interest.
“The seminary reform is also a serious issue from a national security perspective,” he said.
What does this mean for Pakistani politics?
The Sharif government may no longer urgently need JUIF’s political support after the passage of the 26th Amendment. But the government’s failure to maintain its commitment to the party that helped pass controversial constitutional amendments, which former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI claims would weaken the independence of the judiciary, This raises questions about reliability.
“It would be better if the government could resolve this issue without causing further chaos,” Islamabad-based political analyst and newscaster Shahzad Iqbal told Al Jazeera.
But it’s not easy. Iqbal said the government appeared to be under “pressure from other quarters” over the bill.
In July, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, head of Pakistan’s military media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), spoke at a press conference stating that more than half of the country’s religious seminaries were unregistered and providing details. did. Their source of funding was unknown.
According to Lahore-based analyst Majid Nizami, this is why the ongoing debate over religious seminaries and their management could ultimately lead to “directly or indirectly” the hopes of Pakistan’s powerful military. The reason may come down to the fact that
“DGRE is led by a retired major general with long experience in counter-terrorism,” Nizami told Al Jazeera. “If the military gives some kind of approval, political parties will act on it. That’s not a political concern. It’s a military concern.”
