ISLAMABAD: The boards of madaris have warned the government that any ‘ill-intended action’ taken against seminaries at the behest of foreign powers would not be accepted.

A meeting of the Wafaq ul Madaris al Arabia, which belongs to the Deobandi school of thought, held in Karachi on Thursday urged the government to clarify its stance if any headway is to be made in talks between madaris and the authorities.

Presided over by the Wafaq’s secretary general Qari Hanif Jalandhari, the meeting said there could be no compromise on the integrity of madaris.

“We are not only ready to hold talks with the government but also to discuss its reforms agenda,” Wafaq’s spokesman Maulana Abdul Quddus said. “But any restrictions on religious educational institutions to please the international power brokers will not be accepted,” he added.

The Wafaq-ul Madaris al Shia Pakistan took similar decisions at a meeting in Lahore presided over by its senior vice president Maulana Niyaz Hussain Naqvi on Thursday.

“We agreed on three points. Two of them have been conveyed to the government several times and the third relates to the National Action Plan,” he said.

Published in Dawn February 13th , 2015

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