ITMD accuses government of launching crackdown on madrassas

Islamabad
The plan to introduce reforms in madrassas (seminaries) as part of National Action Plan (NAP) seems to be still a far cry as Ittehad-i-Tanzeemat-i-Madaris-i-Deenia (ITMD) has conveyed to the government officials that nothing positive can happen till stoppage of ongoing crackdown on madrassas, the sources told The News here on Tuesday.
“The recent contacts between the government officials and representatives of ITMD yielded positive results and both of them made headway on basic issues like registration, audit and curriculum of in madrassas,” the sources said.
The sources said that in a meeting with Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yusuf the leadership of ITMD asked for the list of madrassas tthat according to the government are involved in terrorism.
They said ITMD would temporarily move out of the ongoing negotiations as it maintained that the government did not provide list of the madrassas allegedly involved in terrorism and instead initiated crackdown on religious seminaries operating across the country.
It is pertinent to mention here that three federal ministries are actively involved in efforts to introduce reforms in madrassas and the government is keen to ensure complete audit of funds given to them by local and foreign philanthropists.
Qari Hanif Jalandhari of ITMD told The News that their negotiations with the government officials were moving in the right direction as consensus was developed on basic issues like registration, audit and syllabus of madrassas.
“I don’t hesitate to say that there are some elements in the ranks of the government who want to sabotage the dialogue process for their vested interests. I ask Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to identify these persons and kick them out of the government,” he said.
He said ITMD assured the government officials that it would help the government in its efforts against those madrassas that are allegedly involved in terrorism, adding “We even asked the government to provide list of such madrassas but instead it started crackdown without taking us into confidence.”
To a question, he said if the government does not stop crackdown against madrassas, there is no reason to enter into dialogue process because then it would be a futile exercise with no chances of success.
Talking to The News, Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf said the government is making all out efforts to ensure the organisers of the religious seminaries understand its viewpoint and streamline their affairs as part of National Action Plan.
“The government has no plan to initiate crackdown on madrassas and it would remove the reservations of ITMD in this respect. We are carrying out negotiations with full sincerity and want to remove huge gap between the educational institutions and madrassas with introduction of common compulsory subjects that would bring students of madrassas at par with other students studying in private and state-run institutions,” he said.
To a question, he said it is not right to say that the dialogues process has entered into a blind alley because the government has achieved some of its basic targets by getting support of ITMD on issues like registration, audit and curriculums of madrassas.