Seminaries affairs: Cleric urges govt to implement recently passed legislation

MANSEHRA: The chief of Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arabia in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Maulana Hussain Ahmad on Wednesday asked the provincial government to implement the recently passed piece of legislation on the affairs of seminaries.

“Our peaceful struggle for registering seminaries met a breakthrough when the federal government passed a piece of legislation. The provincial government should follow suit and implement it,” Maulana Hussain said.

He added that seminaries, which focus on the dissemination of Islamic theology alongside modern disciplines, were being unfairly labelled as nurseries of militancy, fundamentalism, and terrorism, which were unfounded and condemnable.

He added that over half of the students appearing in the ongoing examinations equivalent to a Master’s degree in Arabic and Islamiyat throughout the province were female.

“Our role in imparting free education and even providing sustenance to both men and women is significant in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the rest of the country. This is why we have been advocating for the registration of seminaries under the Societies Registration Act of 1860,” he told a presser here.

Flanked by divisional head Maulana Habibur Rehman, district head Maulana Nasir Mehmood and Maulana Fazlul Bari, Maulana Hussain Ahmad also visited examination centres here.He said that around 75,000 candidates were appearing for exams in even the most remote districts of the province, with more than half of them being female.

“Would you believe before the era of military ruler General Musharraf, students from Western countries, including France and Australia, as well as from the Muslim world, used to come to Pakistan to receive education in these seminaries?” Maulana Hussain said.

The chief of the board also mentioned that a delegation from Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arabia recently visited neighbouring Afghanistan and urged the Taliban government to lift the ban on women’s education.