Affairs Ministry told The News that Nawaz Sharif government’s education vision remained a fruitless effort as its recommendations were never read while Musharraf government under supervision of then religious affairs minister Mahmud Ghazi started a fresh move to reform seminaries.
A team comprising all religious leaders and led by then secretary religious affairs Wakil Ahmad Khan visited US and UK and gave recommendations to improve condition of Madrassas. Tremendous work was done by that team and they gave recommendations. On the basis of these recommendations, Pakistan Madras’s Education Ordinance was promulgated. The ordinance was never laid before parliament and it lapsed without implementation. So no practical work was done.
Then PPP government started a fresh effort and after hectic effort a memorandum of understanding was signed between Ministry of Interior and religious leaders. This was also a good document but it never got implemented.
Now under NAP, again efforts are being made to reform and streamline Madrassas. Again a study will be conducted and fresh recommendation will be finalised and in the meanwhile government’s tenure will be over.
The MOU signed between the Ministry and religious scholars stated madrassas aimed to include compulsory contemporary subjects in curricula of Metric (equivalent to Saniva Amma) and intermediate (equivalent to Sanvia Khassa). All madrassas had to teach compulsory subjects as prescribed by the government. Five Boards run by Ittehad-e-Tanzeemate-Madras Pakistan (ITMP) were to be organised like other Boards under an Act of Parliament. Ultimately, these five boards were to be linked with Ministry of Education.
Madrassas promised not to teach or publish literature promoting militancy or extremism and every madrassa would abide the society’s registration act of 1860 as amended by XIX of 2005. Foreign students’ registration was to be regularised by Interior Ministry. This was excellent agreement and Ahmad Khan, who worked through it, is still around. Now after 18th Amendment, provincial governments are supposed to deal with education. But federal government is also running three madrassas - one for girls in Islamabad and two for boys, one each in Sukkur and Karachi. Under law, these madrassas have no legality and they will not have funding after June, 2015.
Now requirement is to implement this MOU instead of making fresh reports and evolve fresh consensus, which had always been a difficult task.