KARACHI, Dec 4: The Markazi Jamaat Ahl-i-Sunnat has urged the government to extend the deadline fixed for the registration of Madressahs till June 30 next year.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Maulana Qazi Ahmed Noorani, Sahibzada Arif Siddiqui and Abdul Waheed Yunus said that the Jamaat believed in cooperation, as did Allama Shah Ahmed Noorani. The Jamaat, they said, had agreed to the proposal that all Madressahs in the province should get themselves registered.

However, they said, the Jamaat expected from the government to facilitate the registration process by extending the last date, i.e. Dec 31, 2005, to June 30, 2006.

They also called upon the government to announce its policy viz-a-viz foreign students’ admission to Madressahs. They pointed out that no institution of Ahl-i-Sunnat had ever indulged in imparting military training to anyone.

The decision to accept the government’s proposal about registration of Madressahs was aimed at creating an atmosphere of confidence between the government and the religious institutions, they maintained, indicating that this had led to the lifting of a ban on the use of loudspeaker in Friday congregations. They noted that due to the ban, ulema had been subjected to harassment by police.