KARACHI, Dec 3: The Ittehad Tanzeemat Madaris Dinya Pakistan has found the insertion of additional section 21 in the Societies Act 1860, pertaining to registration of religious seminaries, in accordance with the agreement reached between religious seminaries’ organizations and the government.

While accepting this, the ITMDP leaders, at a news conference, claimed that it was now the government’s responsibility to get it passed from parliament in the form of an act.

Mufti Muneebur Rahman, Doctor Sarfraz Ahmad Naeemi, Qari Mohammad Haneef Jalandhri, Maulana Riaz Hussain Najafi, Maulana Abdul Maalik, Mian Naeemur Rahman, Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Sialvi, Mufti Mohammad Rafiq Hasni, Maulana Rehan Amjad Nomani, Maulana Mohammed Naseerullah Naqshbandi, Maulana Qazi Ahmad Noorani and others were present in the press conference.

They pointed out that religious seminaries had never been against registration, in fact, governments in the past had created difficulties in the process. Now, the situation had changed and it was welcomed by them, they said.

In additional clause, according to the ordinance, religious seminaries had only been asked to give their names, address, names of office bearers and management, and trustees besides the number of students. Through the amendment, religious seminaries were also required to submit audited reports of their accounts and teaching activities.

Their contention was that seminaries that were already registered under the Societies Act 1860 or the Trust Act 1882 would be considered as legally registered. However, they would be required to submit audited accounts and educational activity reports along with the newly registered seminaries to the Registrar at the end of next year.

However, they also maintained that the Dec 31, 2005 deadline was not possible because the ITMDP’s central leadership was leaving for Iran on a fact-finding mission at the invitation of the government of Iran.

They demanded that the deadline should be extended till June 30, 2006, so that new forms with latest details filed on the basis of information collected from various coordinators at the lowest tier could be completed.

They said the real problem of religious seminaries was unconditional acceptance of all its certificates and accordance of legal sanction to their right of holding exams, deciding curricula and issuing certificates and degrees from Matric to MA (Sanvia Aamah—Shahadatal Almia) level on pattern of Pakistan Madressah Education Board.

They said the chief of staff of Aiwan-i-Sadr was in possession of the agreement reached between the ITMDP and the federal ministry of religious affairs, and hoped the President would hold a decisive round of discussion with them in coming two weeks.