ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: The Wafaqul Madaris Arabia Pakistan (Deobandi) on Monday rejected the amendments to the registration of Societies Act 1860 and termed it a tool to be used to control the religious institutions in the country.

It was a significant division among the five major federations of seminaries belonging to various schools of thought who had been taking a united stand against the government’s moves vis-a-vis seminaries so far.

A meeting between a few hundred ulema from all over the country was held at the ‘Jamia Muhammadia’ Islamabad, presided over by Qari Saeedur Rahman. It was also attended among others by JUI (F) president, MMA secretary general and leader of opposition Maulana Fazlur Rahman and chief administrator of Wafaqul Madaris Arabia Qari Mohammad Hanif Jallandhri, said a press release.

The meeting rejected the December 31 deadline for registration of seminaries, any amendment to the registration of societies’ law (which it said was obviously meant to curb the independence of seminaries), and also rejected the deadline of September 30 for expulsion of external students.

The meeting said that despite that all government functionaries have clearly stated that no seminary or religious student was involved in terrorism and there was no reason in putting so many curbs on the establishment and working of seminaries.

The meeting said that the aim of such steps was also to render seminary degrees (sanad) useless and interfere in seminaries syllabus, monitory matters and administrative issues.

The meeting of ulema, while expressing its confidence in “Ittehad Tanzeemat Madaris Deenia” and MMA leadership, decided to constitute an extensive committee to discuss and chalk out future programme to combat the situation, including launching a media campaign against the government’s moves of intimidating the religious institutions and ulema.

The meeting observed that the government steps taken so far were against the spirit of negotiations with the ITMD which says that the government was not serious about implementing the agreed points.

It condemned the crackdown on seminaries, ulema and students with particular reference to the police attack on a local seminary — “Jamia Hafsa” — in which the female teachers and students were humiliated.

The meeting expressed its solidarity with ulema and ‘khutaba’ and assured its fullest support against the government’s interference and intimidation.

The committee announced by the meeting will comprise Maulana Qari Mohammad Hanif Jallandhri, Maulana Qari Saeedur Rahman, Maulana Ashraf Ali, Maulana Mohammad Taqi Usmani, Maulana Qaiz Abdur Rashid, Maulana Mufti Ghulamur Rahman, Maulana Anwarul Haq, Maulana Fazlur Rahim, Maulana Qazi Asmatullah, Maulana Mohammad Nasir Farooqi, Allama Abdur Rashid Ghazi, Maulana Abdul Majeed, Maulana Saeed Yusuf and Maulana Mufti Mohammad Ruwais.