KARACHI, July 31: The representatives of all five federations of Madaris belonging to all religious sects, and the leadership of the mainstream religious parties on Wednesday, welcomed the governments decision to allow Madaris to continue with their previous way of teaching.

This was expressed here at a convention organized by the Coalition of Deeni Madaris Pakistan.

The welcome remarks were accompanied by a note of warning of serious reaction if the government tried to back out from its agreement with the Madaris.

The convention made it clear that they would never hesitate in rendering sacrifices to safeguard the sovereignty of these religious schools, as they had proved in the past.

It was also announced that the scheduled “All Parties Tahaffuz-i-Madaris Deenia Pakistan” meeting that was to be held in Lahore on August 7, was being put off.

In another resolution, the convention demanded that the government respect the verdict of the Shariat Court regarding the introduction of interest-free banking in country.

The convention severely condemned the baton charge on teachers in Lahore, and also expressed concern over the reported arrest of Ulema from different parts of the country, demanding their immediate release.

In another resolution, it denounced the propaganda campaign launched by western countries to defame Madaris, alleging that they were producing terrorist instead of educating students.

The chief of the Wafaqul Madarisul Arabia Pakistan, Maulana Saleemullah Khan, appreciated the government’s move to give a hearing to their arguments during the meeting held on July 30.

He voiced a note of warning that any “mischief” by the government towards honouring its agreement would have a serious impact on the country.

Chief of the MMA, Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani, said that a conspiracy had been conceived to harm the Islamic values of Pakistan in the name of NGOs.

He added that the western powers had spent some Rs 800 million to project secularism in the country, and the NGOs are playing an important role in this regard.

JUI chief, Maulana Fazl-Ur-Rehman, welcomed the governments step towards establishing a nine-member committee to look into the concerns of Madaris.

He dispelled the impression that the religious parties were extremist groups intending to do harm to non-Muslims, instead saying that the government is itself proving to be extremist by taking strict action against peaceful religious factions.

Maulana Samiul Haq, Chief of another faction of the JUI, viewed the relaxation by the government towards Madaris may be a “tranquillizer” for them, and asked the representatives of Madaris to be aware of the governments next line of action towards them.

Representatives of the Millat Shia and the Wafaqul Madaris-i-Shia Pakistan, Maulana Own Naqvi, Maulana Hasan Zafar Naqvi and Allama Hasan Turrabi expressed full support to the Coalition of Madaris against any government act against them.—PPI