Ministers visit madrasas in bid to stop students from attending JUI-F’s anti-govt march

The federal government has asked its ministers to visit Deobandi madrasas and meet their administrators to convince them to stop their students from attending the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s anti-government long march.

On Saturday, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Pir Noor ul Qadri and Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi met Mufti Muhammad Naeem, principal of the Jamia Binoria Al-Alamia, one of the largest seminaries of the Deobandi school of thought.

After meeting, Mufti Naeem along with Qadri and Zaidi spoke to the media where he openly opposed the participation of seminary students in the JUI-F long march.

“Madrasa students must not be used for political purposes,” Naeem told media. He said that attendance of students of religious seminaries in the political marches would give a wrong message to their parents and bring madrasas into disrepute.

Naeem’s madrasa -- Jamia Binoria Al-Alamia – is the only Deobandi madrasa in Karachi that is known for frequent political personalities, celebrities and diplomats.

In the general and local government elections, Naeem meets leaders of various political parties and announces openly support for their candidates.

The administrators of Karachi’s two major Deobandi madrasas — Maulana Taqi Usmani and Mufti Rafi Usmani of the Jamia Darul Uloom Korangi and Mufti Zarwali Khan of the Jamia Ahsan Uloom Gulshan-e-Iqbal — refused to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday.

According to various reports citing statistics compiled by various security agencies and madrasa boards, the total number of seminary students is 4.1 million. Precise numbers are impossible to verify, though, as most institutions operate independently of direct government supervision.

Among them are the two million students studying in 15,375 madrasas affiliated with the Wafaq ul Madaris Al-Arabia Pakistan; the largest madrasa education board aligned with the Deobandi school of thought.

The JUI-F enjoys great support in most of the madrasas, whose teachers, students and administrators are the main support base of the religious party.

Wafaq ul Madaris Al-Arabia Pakistan’s secretary-general Maulana Hanif Jalandhari also refused to meet Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday.

Political analysts believe that most of the Deobandi madrasa operating in Karachi had either affiliation with the JUI-F or pay respect to the religious party’s chief, Maulana Fazlur Rehman.