Pakistani radical cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the bill was passed by the National Assembly and the Senate. He added that the government should have referred the bill to the joint sitting after the objections by the President, according to Dawn. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Pakistani clerics made it clear to the government that their seminaries would remain independent of official influence by not becoming part of government department, a departure from the stance adopted by them in 2019.

In 2019, traditional madrassas boards had agreed to cede some control to the Federal Education Ministry.

The Ittehad Tanzeemat-i-Madaris Pakistan, a representative body of seminaries run by clerics belonging to different sects of Islam, made the announcement after a meeting on Tuesday (December 17, 2024).

Also Read: Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan | The rally of the radical clerics

A joint delegation of clerics called on Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) at his residence in Islamabad to throw their weight behind him in the current controversy of a bill regarding registration of madrassas.

The JUI-F leader is pressing the government to issue a gazette notification for the Societies Registration (Amendment) Bill 2024, which would roll back the 2019 agreement and make the district administration the authority to carry out registration of seminaries.

Dawn reported that the joint delegation by the clerics represented madrassas boards belonging to the Barelvi, Deobandi, Shia and Ahle Hadith schools of thought, while the fifth board belonged to seminaries under the control of the Jamaat-i-Islami.

In a statement issued after the meeting, Mufti Taqi Usmani said that the boards’ collective decision to come under the administrative control of the education ministry in 2019 was taken under pressure, as at the time they thought it was better to be under the control of the education ministry than anyone else.

Mr. Usmani said that seminaries will remain autonomous, adding that they would not become subservient to authorities in Pakistan like they were in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt.

In the National Assembly session on Tuesday (December 17, 2024), the government and the JUI-F both seemed to favour talks to sort out the controversy surrounding the proposed legislation.

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar admitted that a legal complexity had been created regarding the Societies Registration (Amendment) Bill 2024 and offered that Maulana Rehman should sit with the government to sort out the issue.

Maulana Rehman said that the bill was passed by the National Assembly and the Senate. He added that the government should have referred the bill to the joint sitting after the objections by the president, according to Dawn.

A joint sitting of the two houses planned for December 17 was not held due to differences between the government and the JUI-F. The government wanted to place the bill before the joint sitting of the National Assembly and the Senate but the clerics refused and demanded the bill had become a law and just needed a formal declaration by the government.

The issue of proper accountability of over 35,000 seminaries, with hundreds of thousands of students, has been unresolved for decades despite several efforts by the authorities. The main reason is that clerics want to keep their hold on the syllabus and financial matters of their seminaries.

However, they agreed in 2019 to get registered with the Directorate of Religious Education working under the Ministry of Education. Reportedly, over 18,000 seminaries with over 2 million students have been registered with the board.

But using his clout during the urgency for the government to pass the 26th constitutional amendment in October, Maulana Fazl succeeded to get the Societies Registration (Amendment) Bill 2024 passed by the parliament to allow seminaries to get registered under this act.

However, the bill, which gives greater authority to seminaries, was not signed by President Asif Ali Zardari. The current controversy is if the bill has become a law as asserted by the maulana or needed approval by the joint session of the parliament.

Islamabad:

Pakistan’s leading right-wing Islamic leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Monday came out in support of his erstwhile rival Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, saying the opposition party has the right to hold rallies and even form a government.

Rehman, the chief of his faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), made a blistering speech in the National Assembly, slamming the powerful establishment for allegedly rigging the political system.

“It is the right of the PTI to hold a rally,” he said. “We also objected to the 2018 election and we object to this (February 8 polls) one too. If the 2018 poll was rigged, why is the current one not rigged?” he asked.

PTI leader Asad Qaiser had demanded the party’s right to organise a rally. “The demand of Asad Qaiser is correct and it is the right of PTI to hold a rally,” Rehman said in his speech.

Rehman urged the ruling coalition of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and the Pakistan Peoples Party to allow the PTI to form the government if it enjoyed a majority in the parliament.  

“Leave this power. Come and sit here [on the opposition benches], and if the PTI is indeed the larger group, then give them the government,” he said.

The cleric then expressed his dismay over the role of the establishment and bureaucracy in election and running the country.

“The establishment and bureaucracy had no role in achieving this country,” he said.

He alleged that the elections held on Feb 8 were not fair but flawed.

“What kind of election is this where the losers are not satisfied and the winners are upset?” he said.

He drew parallels with neighbouring India. “Just compare India and ourselves… both countries got independence on the same day. But today they (India) are dreaming of becoming a superpower and we are begging to avoid bankruptcy,” he said.

While India is inching closer to become a Global Superpower, Pakistan is begging before the world to save it from devastation.

[Pakistan’s Parliament] pic.twitter.com/i3ZNA3kQaN

— kanishka Dadhich (@KanishkaDadhich) April 29, 2024

He said that decisions are made by somebody else but politicians are blamed for the problems.

Rehman also lamented the failure to implement recommendations from the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), emphasising the importance of upholding Islamic principles.

“We got the country in the name of Islam, but today we have become a secular state. Since 1973, not a single recommendation of the CII has been implemented. How can we be an Islamic country?” he said.

The CCI is a constitutional body set up to help Islamize the laws.

He also said that Pakistan was begging the International Monetary Fund to avoid bankruptcy.

pic.twitter.com/KGHZhhVB18

— Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman (@MoulanaOfficial) April 29, 2024

The JUI-F was the arch-rival of PTI and had spearheaded the move for the ouster of Imran Khan. After his downfall, JUI-F became part of the coalition government. However, he parted ways with the PML-N and PPP after the elections as he alleged that the polls were rigged to keep his party out of power.

It is believed by many that by supporting the PTI, the cleric is putting pressure on the establishment and the government to cut a deal to get a bigger share in the spoils of politics than his potential.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)