Religious Islamic leaders who run madarassas in Pakistan have categorically rejected the federal government's ordinance which makes it mandatory for all religious schools to get registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860, saying that the seminaries would "continue to teach the principles of jihad as inscribed in the Holy Quran".
The Daily Times quoted the religious leaders as saying that they would not cooperate with the federal government on the registration issue "until the government addressed the concerns of religious leaders".
Denying that some religious seminaries were involved in giving militancy training, the religious leaders, while speaking at the "Religious Schools and Contemporary Needs Convention", said that they would not accept any dictation from the government on the curriculum that should be taught in the madarassas.
The Convention was organised by the Tanzim-ul-Madaris Ahle Sunnah Pakistan (Brelvi).
President of the Tanzim-ul-Madaris, Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, said that religious leaders would not compromise on the sovereignty of religious schools.
Expressing reservations on certain points of the new ordinance, especially the audit of the seminaries and submission of the audit report to the registrar, Rehman further said: "In our opinion the government policy about repatriation of foreign students from the country is against the constitution and the ideology of the Pakistan," he said.
Opposing the federal government's
move to repatriate foreign students under UK pressure, Dr Muhammad Sarfaraz
Naeemi, tanzim-ul-madars nazim-e-aala, said that it was incomprehensible
as to why the government had decided to repatriate them. "Even the Indian
government was allowing foreign students to study in seminaries there,"
he added. (ANI)