ISLAMABAD, July 30: A meeting of government ministers and Ulema on Tuesday set up a committee to review and redraft the proposed draft Madaris Ordinance 2002.

According to a government handout issued here on Tuesday, the committee comprised nine members — three government representatives and six Ulema. The members of the committee are: three federal secretaries of religious, interior and education ministries while Maulana Hanif Jallendhri, Mufti Munibur Rahman, Mufti Razi Usman, Allama Sajid Mir, Maulana Abdul Malik and Abbas Naqvi will represent the Ulema.

No deadline was, however, set for the committee to suggest amendments to the proposed ordinance. Interior Minister Lt-Gen Moinuddin, who led the ministerial team, accepted some of the objections raised by the Ulema. He agreed that the ban on the admissions to foreign students below 18 years might be withdrawn.

Both sides also agreed that NOC for opening of new religious schools will be obtained by a representative of Wafaqul Madaris of the respective area instead of the District Nazim as was proposed in the draft ordinance.

In order to bring religious education out of the bureaucratic system the government agreed to appoint religious scholars as heads of the proposed federal as well as provincial religious education boards as against respective secretaries of religious affairs as was proposed in the draft ordinance.

Mufti Munibur Rahman, a spokesman for the Alliance of religious schools’ organizations, told newsmen after the meeting that the government had accepted reservations of the religious circles about the proposed ordinance. He said the team members told the government representatives that the religious leadership would not accept any restriction on the Madaris’ administrative, financial and syllabus independence.

He further said that the government had also agreed that curbs on the admissions to foreign students below the age of 18 years would harm country’s status as an Islamic state.