Narrowing in

After a long tussle with the centre, the provincial government in Sindh has decided to launch a major effort to register madressahs and ensure that those which breed militancy are not able to function. Sindh is not alone in its perception that madressahs need to be targeted if militancy is to be fought successfully. On Friday, in Punjab, 200 suspected militants were arrested, including 26 wanted persons, following raids on scores of madressahs in various cities in the province. Police say the action was carried out as part of the National Action Plan agreed on early this year. It is understood further action will follow. In Sindh, the first signs of a similar move to crack down on madressahs came in June, after intelligence agencies identified 48 madressahs in the province as being ‘suspicious’ and possibly associated with terrorism. Action had been promised at the time, but none came. The Sindh government has blamed the centre for this and stated that despite the recommendations made to it and the advice sought, it had not put forward any plan or any instructions on how to deal with the madressah problem. At a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, the Sindh government decided on Wednesday to introduce its own laws and move ahead to tackle the situation. The CM’s assistant on religious affairs Qayoom Soomro has been entrusted with the task of building support among religious scholars for this and for approaching the Wafaqul Madris, which deals with seminaries in the country. Soomro has claimed he has already been able to develop greater trust with madressah heads and clerics after visiting these institutions across the province. His success in this will of course need to be seen. But essentially, the meeting held by the CM was told that out of the 9,590 madressahs operating in the province, only 6,503 were registered. More than 150 have recently been sealed because they were unregistered and suspected of involvement in possibly illegal activity.
It is good to see action underway against madressahs. The problem of these schools, which have mushroomed across the country – with the majority of them completely unregulated – has been one that has plagued the country for decades. According to available figures, there are over 35,0000 madressahs in the country. At least 14,000 of these are located in Punjab. In March this year, the Punjab police chief noted 147 of these were funded from overseas. The action in Punjab on Friday against them had been planned for some time. It is true not all madressahs preach terrorism or violence. People turn to them because they often offer free food and free shelter to the poorest children in society. But the problem is that these students are denied mainstream education and even at those madressahs where nothing illegal is imparted, the ideas put forward are often biased against minority groups, against India and against women. There have been too few studies to properly survey what the results of a madressah education are, but those that have been conducted have produced alarming results in terms of the thinking of those coming out from these institutions. There have also been fears of a backlash if madressahs are targeted. We will need to see if this happens in Punjab and Sindh. But what is also important is that the government focuses on providing other facilities where children can learn by reviving the public school sector which is close to collapse. This collapse is indeed the reason madressahs have mushroomed everywhere. It would also be wise for the Punjab government to take key clerics on board as it continues with its drive against madressahs, although its action against them so far have been admirably bold and suggest a true sense of purpose directed against the more dubious institutions.