Seminary reforms: 18-year-old project still continuing

ISLAMABAD: In case anybody is curious to know that how successive governments have been reinventing the wheel, registration of the seminaries is a classic example.
This is an 18-year old reform project still in progress that saw yet another new beginning on Monday when the government and seminary leaders reached an agreement over the registration that was first agreed in 2005, then in 2010 and now again.
As witnessed on September 7, 2015 that seminary leaders met with the prime minister, agreed on the audit, registration and other such measures to be decided through a committee, the similar kind of an understanding was also reached on October 7, 2010.
History of negotiations on seminary reforms indicates that enthusiasm is consumed at meetings and ends at the press conferences.
While Ch. Nisar held a presser after Monday’s meeting, his predecessor did the same in 2010 after signing a MoU almost on the same points agreed yesterday.
If the contents of agreement are any guide, Oct 2010 accord was more comprehensive as it focused on mainstreaming of seminaries through introducing contemporary education, among other points.
A committee was then constituted drawing representation from the seminary leaders and the government officials to draft a law in light of the agreed points for its passage from the Parliament but not a single meeting was held.
Instead of resuming the process where it was stalled, a new beginning has been made for new experiments ignoring altogether the previous efforts and also the money used for making this reform project a success story.
The seminary leaders were flown to the United States, United Kingdom and Turkey, courtesy an American NGO and UK’s foreign office for broadening their vision so that they replicate from their observations abroad.
As a matter of fact, the idea of seminary reforms was first conceived by the PML-N government in 1997.
The education policy introduced by the previous Nawaz Sharif government included the promise of mainstreaming the seminaries, however, the idea couldn’t be materialised due to the government’s premature end following the military’s takeover.
Incidentally, the previous PML-N government was focused on mainstreaming of seminaries, a vital point missed in its 2015’s initiative.
As Musharraf seized the power, the incident of 9/11 brought the seminaries under sharp focus again. The Establishment of Pakistan Madressah Education Board Ordinance 2001 was promulgated that required the seminaries to dissolve their respective boards and register themselves with the government-run board, a move immediately dismissed by the seminary leaders.
There are five boards of seminaries: Wafaq-ul-Madaris al-Arabia of Deoband school of thought, Tanzeem-ul-Madaris of Barelvis, Rabita-ul-Madaris (run by Jama’at-e-Islami), Wafaq-ul-Madaris Shia and Wafaq-ul-Madaris al-Salfia. The first board is the biggest with around 70% seminaries affiliated with it and the second has roughly 15% seminaries affiliated and the remaining three have almost five percent affiliation each.
The boards had refused to accept the ordinance conceived by the then-religious affairs minister Dr. Mehmood Ghazi and promulgated by Pervez Musharraf. “You can’t be the empire and players at the same time,” they had argued and the law subsequently lost its utility.
Another attempt was made after 7/7 bombing in London as those involved were trained in seminaries. Among other measures, Society Act 1860 was amended to incorporate a clause demanding compulsory registration of the seminaries. It was also made mandatory for the seminaries to conduct annual audit of funds and submit reports to the district registrar.
Around 12000 seminaries were registered then, out of 30,000. The latest figures put the estimated registered seminaries around 26,000.
‘Maktab’ (where religious education is given without offering boarding and lodging facilities) were not part of it. They are estimated to be around 75000.
Meanwhile, efforts were made to reorient the seminary leaders by arranging their visits to the other countries. A Washington-based NGO, International Center for Religion and Diplomacy financed their trips to the US and Turkey.
Former secretary religious affairs, Vakil Ahmed Khan, who had been consistently working on the reform project as secretary and later on as Chairman of (government-run) Madaris Board led the delegates abroad.
In the US, they met with Church leaders and Congressmen, among others. In Turkey, they were taken to Imam Khatib Schools run by Turkish government where the students are imparted religious and contemporary educations. Turkish government had then offered to train teachers at Pakistani seminaries, an idea that didn’t evoke warm response.
In UK, they learned that how the religious schools run by the Pakistani seminaries’ boards are affiliated with the secular education boards for contemporary education boards there to obtain degree, necessary for entering into the job market of Briton.
It was in this background, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed on October 7, 2010 by the then-interior minister Rehman Malik and head of the five seminary boards. Each seminary board, according to the agreement then reached, was to have two nominees of the government.
They had also consented for imparting contemporary education with the curriculum of Federal Board of Islamabad to be taught in every seminary whereas the religious curriculum were to be designed by the seminaries’ boards depending on their sects.
It was however agreed that sectarian hatred would not be promoted nor militancy would be allowed to flourish either through teaching or practice. They had also agreed that no seminary affiliated with their boards would operate without registration.
A committee comprising two members each from the government and seminary boards was set up to convert this MoU into draft law for the passage from the Parliament.
The then-interior secretary Qamar Zaman Chaudhry and Vakil Ahmed Khan (Chairman government-run Madaris Board) were the government’s representative whereas Qari Hanif Jalandhary and Mufti Muneeb represented the seminary establishments.
However, not a single meeting could be held to move forward on this.
Now as PML-N is in power, it has taken a new start instead of learning from the past experiences and resuming the process from where it was stalled.