F.P. Report
CHARSADDA: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Monday asked the government to avoid politicising the issue of seminaries.
Speaking at a press conference, he asserted that the struggle for the autonomy of seminaries was a collective cause for all scholars and religious institutions. He stressed the importance of safeguarding religious education, including Quranic studies, Fiqh, and Hadith, while condemning attempts to create divisions among scholars.
Rehman accused institutions of interfering in the Madrasa Registration Bill, which had previously been passed with consensus. He highlighted that seminaries were given the freedom to affiliate under the 1860 Act or the Ministry of Education. He reiterated his commitment to safeguarding the independence of seminaries while advocating their registration in a fair manner.
Ulema and Mashaikh held an important meeting regarding the registration and reforms in seminaries in Islamabad on Monday.
Addressing the participants, Director General of Religious Education Ghulam Qamar said it was a consensus decision that the seminaries of all schools of thought would register themselves with the directorate general of religious education. Recognising the role of seminaries in education of children of poor segments of society, the director general said 18,600 seminaries had got themselves registered. He said “we are also providing teachers to the seminaries. “We provided technical training to 2,500 students of seminaries,” he said.
In current circumstances, he said, they were not willing to accept any proposal tabled by the government. Fazl asked the government to focus on the country’s security situation amid rising terror attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. “Focus on the country, we are here to save madrassas,” he added.
Furthermore, the JUI-F chief claimed that armed groups were present in both restive provinces — KP and Balochistan — during the February 8 general elections. “In both provinces, religious and nationalist parties were kept out of the assemblies. He also accused the authorities of pushing the seminaries towards extremism, alleging that they want to control the religious seminaries on orders of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United States and the West.
