KARACHI: As the provincial government finds it hard to seal unregistered madressahs in Sindh, the federal government is playing its part as well in delaying the issue of madressah reforms by not sending guidelines to the provinces to launch the plan, it emerged on Monday.

Officials in the provincial home department said that the Sindh government had already furnished comments and input on the policy of registration of madressahs to the federal ministry of religious affairs in connection with the madressah reforms as planned by Islamabad.

They said Sindh had sent its recommendations over the issues involving the ownership of the property for madressahs, permissions required for the managements and no-objection certificates, which the home department issues to all new seminaries.

“We have sent our viewpoint over the questions asking the land used for a madressah is privately owned or owned by the government, NOCs by the provincial building control authority and deputy commissioner concerned and NOC from the home department taken before a madressah’s registration,” said an official.

He said the provincial authorities had furnished all the required paperwork, but the federal government was not responding further.

The request of the Sindh home department is pending with the ministries of religious affairs and interior for policy on madressah reforms.

“We may approach the federal government for further guidance,” he added.

The officials, however, said that the federal government had opted to delay the issue of the reforms for host of reasons.

It did not want to displease a number of religious parties, which were not in a tussle with Islamabad at present, but a formal launching of reforms would invite their wrath, they added.

“The parties like Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam of Maulana Fazlur Rehman and several others get their support and street power from the seminaries, so any bold step to rein in madressah operations will provoke them,” said an official.

Sources said the issue relating to delays in madressah reforms in Sindh had been taken up several times in the meetings of the apex committee, which oversees the targeted operations against militants and criminals in Karachi and elsewhere in Sindh, and every time it decided to approach the federal government for a final nod but the issue remained up in the air.

However, the provincial government itself had not done its job where it did not need a nod from Islamabad.

It has closed just 167 out of more than 1,400 madressahs in just two districts of Sindh — Hyderabad and Shaheed Benazirabad.

The government has identified a total of 4,021 madressahs in Sindh, out of which 2,598 are registered and 1,423 unregistered — Tando Allahyar district with the least seminaries (30) and Karachi-West with the most i.e. 1,358 madressahs.

Total 1,887 madressahs have been identified in Karachi. Of them, 1,308 are registered.

Nearly half of the madressahs in Sindh are situated in Karachi and so far no action is being taken to stop the construction of new madressahs in the metropolis without having formal permission and registration.

Officials said a pro forma proposed by the apex committee for registration of seminaries in the province also required the consent of the federal government. If approved, it would require management of a madressah to fill in with the details of students, teachers and sources of fund, if any.

Official figures say a total of 388,327 students are enrolled with all the madressahs in Sindh.

A dominant majority of madressahs are owned by Wifaq-ul-Madaris Arabia (Deoband), followed by Tanzeem-ul-Madaris Ahle Sunnat (Barelvi), Wifaq-ul-Madaris (Fiqh Jafria) and Wifaq Al-Sulfia (Ahle Hadith).

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2015

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