ISLAMABAD: It appears the government is considering old and failed policies, as it once again flexes its muscles to ‘streamline’ seminaries.

Focusing yet again on the curriculum, the Ministry of Religious Affairs is planning to add a subject vaguely described as ‘anti-terrorism’ that will be taught to seminary students.

Hafiz Sajjad Qamar, advisor to the religious affairs minister, told Dawn that the addition of ‘anti-terrorism’ is part of the National Action Plan (NAP).

Read: Seminaries to help identify ‘black sheep’

He added that the proposed subject would serve a ‘counter narrative’, the buzzword that is doing the rounds these days. He claimed that the subject would redefine the concept of Jihad.

“It would focus on the teachings of the Holy prophet (peace be upon him) on peace and interfaith harmony.”

“It would serve to educate madressahs students that waging war against any country is the responsibility of the state and not of individuals or organisations.”

Also read: MPC ends with national consensus on NAP

However, to bring the Wafaqul Madaris on board, the textbook for the course may be titled Amn Ki Kitab.

This is not the first time that the government has pushed the idea that problems associated with seminaries in Pakistan can be fixed by tweaking the subjects taught there.

But this is the first time the government has acknowledged that certain seminaries are linked to militant organisations and have promised to tackle them as part of its plan to eliminate militancy. But it still persists with old and failed methods of ‘mainstreaming’ seminaries by trying to modernise their curricula.

Explore more: Madressah reform

Few believe such efforts will bear any fruit.

For instance, an official from the religious ministry argued that one or two modern subjects are not enough to counter the extremist mindset.

“How can you expect a madressah student to behave like a student from a mainstream school,” he asked.

“We should follow Turkey’s model where the madaressahs provide modern, quality education; the incumbent prime minister and president of Turkey both studied at madaressahs”, he pointed out.

Govt plans to teach ‘anti-terrorism’ courses in madressahs, experts question wisdom of this logic

Social scientist A. H. Nayyar also endorsed that view. He said that by adopting the Turkish madaressah model, extremism could be curtailed.

He said that seminary students believe that the followers of other religions and even different sects are on the wrong path. “That makes them intolerant,” he added.

According to him, there are main three problems linked with seminaries.

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“One, the seminary students cannot get a decent job in a good organisation. Second, the environment, to some extent, promotes sectarianism and third is the outdated books the student is taught.”

He added that even if seminaries were not linked to militancy directly, they helped provide an environment sympathetic to the militant mindset.

Dr Nayyar argued that there is a need to monitor the teachers and the training they impart to the students.

Before the PML-N, it was former president retired General Pervez Musharraf who tried to streamline the seminaries.

Also read: Siraj vows to defend mosques, madressahs

In August 2001, he promulgated the “Pakistan Madarassah Education (Establishment and Affiliation of Model Deeni Madaris) Board (PMEB) Ordinance” and a board was also constituted.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) also tried to work through strengthening the PMEB; then interior minister Rehman Malik held meetings with the administrators of the Wafaqul Madris.

But a senior official of the ministry of religious affairs, on the condition of anonymity, the seminaries fear that if they accept government aid and the conditions attached, their accounts will be audited.

“They don’t want to reveal details of their fund-raising,” he said. And the government also does not push the issue much.

This is illustrated by the five years reforms project launched in 2004-05 by the ministry of education.

Targeting 8,000 seminaries, the government offered to provide money for each place to hire four teachers each to teach ‘modern’ subjects.

“But three years later, the ministry terminated the project as only 505 seminaries opted for the programme,” said Dr Muhammad Hanif, who was a member of the project.

“Instead of taking the seminaries into confidence the government tries to impose restrictions on them, without acknowledging that the official capacity is limited while the target seminaries are strong enough to ignore the government altogether,” pointed out Wakeel Ahmed Khan, secretary Religious Affairs in 2004 Apart from lack of political will and the reluctance of the seminaries, the usual bureaucratic and governance apathy has also hampered the government efforts.

For instance, the PMEB has been run on an ad-hoc basis and headed by chairmen who proved ineffective.

Consider. As per the MEB Ordinance, the boards had to hold meetings twice in a year.

However, from 2001 to 2004 when it was being run by Dr Sher Zaman and Dr Khalid Alvi the board met six times. After the departure of Dr Alvi in 2004, the acting charge of this board was given to additional secretary Wakeel Ahmed Khan who remained there for seven years after which a former official of a spy agency, Fiaz Ahmed Ranjha, was made the chairman; he stayed on till 2014.

Not a single meeting of the MEB was held from 2004 to 2014.

Federal minister for religious affairs Sardar Mohammad Yousaf told Dawn that as the MEB remain dormant for a decade, no progress was made.

However, he added that now the religious affairs ministry has proposed a ‘Madarassah Regulatory Authority’ comprising representatives of five Wafaqul Madaris representatives, government and non-government officials and educationists.

The seminarians too are aware that the government is non serious. Maulana Mohammad Hanif Jalandhri, general secretary Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arbia told Dawn that the governments do not have a clear idea about what to do.

“They are ignorant about how madaris work.”He said that the funds earmarked in consecutive budgets for the reforms of seminaries were spent only on the bureaucracy.

According to the interior ministry, there are over 22,000 registered seminaries in the country. The number of unregistered Madaris is almost double, says the ministry.

The majority of these Madaris are run by Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arabia headed by Maulana Hanif Jalandhri. These Madaris are Deobandi.

The rest are being managed by Wafaqul Madaris Shia headed by Qazi Niaz Hussain Naqvi, Wafaqul Madaris Salfia (Ahl-i-Hdith) Professor Sajid Mir, Tanzimul Madaris (Brelvi) Mufti Munibur Rehman and Rabita-tul-Madaris headed by Maulana Abdul Malik of Jamat-i-Islami.

Published in Dawn January 19th , 2015

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