Madrassa reform yet again

Madrassas (religious seminaries) are in the news again in recent days. On May 6, 2019, Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood revealed in a press conference that his ministry had completed its initial work to register all 30,000 madrassas in the country and none would be allowed to promote hatred and sectarianism. This came about, the minister went on, as a of a consensus agreement between the Federal Education Ministry and the heads of religious boards under whose aegis the madrassas are organised. The agreement states that the madrassas will not be subordinate organisations of the ministry, rather they will function as affiliated institutions. For the purpose of registration of all madrassas, 10 regional centres will be set up in various parts of the country. The minister then went on to warn that those madrassas that do not get registered will be closed, as will those that violate the set code of conduct. All registered madrassas will have an account in scheduled banks. They would be allowed to enroll foreign students for a maximum of nine years. The madrassas will be facilitated with their students being able to acquire vocational training so that they can become useful citizens and earn their living. The minister rounded off his press conference by underlining that the government would provide opportunities for the students of the madrassas to get modern education along with religious education. The very next day, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan informed in her press conference that the federal cabinet, having been briefed by Shafqat Mahmood on the agreement with the heads of the religious boards, gave its approval for a uniform curriculum for all educational institutions in the country, including the madrassas. The government will monitor the bank transactions and foreign funding of the madrassas.
The government may well be right that it has at long last untangled the Gordian knot of bringing the madrassas under some form of check. But some scepticism may also be justified given the history of the madrassa issue. At Independence, one report says there were no more than 200 madrassas in the whole of Pakistan (West and East). How this number grew to the 30,000 that have proliferated throughout the remaining (West) Pakistan is both an intriguing story as well as a cautionary tale. This proliferation took place starting from the 1980s in connection with the mujahideen struggle against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. These madrassas were funded and set up with the help of Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf countries. They served as training and recruiting platforms for the Afghan struggle. For large, poor families, the temptation of free board and lodging for students was too strong to resist. One son at least was enrolled in a madrassa. While the Afghan struggle did not quite work out the way intended, the madrassa product also acquired over time ambitions vis-à-vis a similar struggle inside Pakistan. It is only when the state, particularly the military, finally struck back at these domestic jihadis that Pakistan breathed a sigh of (relative) relief. There have been various attempts before to bring the madrassas under some kind of control, but this has been resisted by the religious boards and the broader religious lobby. The curriculum and teaching in the madrassas has produced by now generations of graduates unable to serve as anything but priests. The government's thrust is eminently reasonable. A uniform curriculum that is also applied to the madrassas will at the very least prevent religious strife engendered by hate-filled teaching and at the same time equip these students with the knowledge and skills they need to earn their bread. The madrassas Pakistan has experienced are a far cry from the institutions of learning set up in Islam's heyday, including the world's first university set up by two well off sisters in Fez, Morocco, in the 9th century. The modern day version has spawned a great deal of extremism and even terrorism. Not all madrassas are guilty in this regard. But by now, in perception at least, they have all been tarred in perception with the brush of hotbeds of extremism. The government's intent is creditable. Unfortunately, however, there are already some sounds of rumbling from the religious lobby even before the ink has dried on the 'consensus agreement'. Let us hope this effort does not end up like previous ones. That would let down the expectations of society at large as well as deprive these madrassa students of the chance for a brighter future in which they have the requisite knowledge to stand tall as citizens of the state.