ISLAMABAD, July 1: The government has decided to modify the Madressah registration ordinance in consultation with leaders of religious organizations and convened a meeting on July 4 in this regard, official sources told Dawn here on Monday.

The consultation process has been initiated on the instructions of President Pervez Musharraf in order to dilute the opposition to the Madressah ordinance, the sources added.

A meeting was held between the government authorities and representatives of various Madaris last week which decided that a more representative meeting would be arranged.

The sources said in the forthcoming meeting the representatives/ heads of religious organizations and the government officials would make an attempt to iron out the differences over the “objectionable parts of the draft ordinance through mutual understanding.”

The meeting has been convened on the request of Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Dr Mehmood Ghazi who had contacted all the major stakeholders in the religious education, the sources said.

Chief of JUI and Secretary-general of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Maulana Fazlur Rahman and his deputy Hafiz Hussain Ahmed are likely to attend the meeting.

Besides, all the heads of major religious organizations, including three Wafaqul Madaris each representing the Deobandi, Fiqah Jafaria and Ahl-i-Hadith schools of thought, Tanzimul Madaris of Barelvi sect and Rabita-ul-Madaris, a subsidiary of Jamaat-i-Islami, have been invited to the meeting. The ministers and secretaries of religion affairs, education and interior departments would represent the government side, the sources added.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman told Dawn that he had received a letter from the Chief Executive’s Secretariat, requesting him to participate in a consultative meeting at 11am on July 4, for the purpose of discussing the impediments in the way of Madaris ordinance and related matters.

He said: “I discussed the government request over telephone with chief of Wafaqul Madaris Pakistan Maulana Salimullah Khan in Karachi who also confirmed that the government had sent such an invitation to all the heads of main organizations running Madaris in the country.”

Maulana Jalil of Rabita-ul-Madaris said that head of his organization Maulana Abdul Malik had also been invited to the meeting. He claimed that the differences on the ordinance had arisen due to clear deviation from a formula agreed between Madaris administrators and the minister for religious affairs before the document’s finalization.