District govts to be put in charge of madrassas

By Amir Rana

LAHORE: The government is likely to promulgate the Madrassa Ordinance 2004, according to which all madrassas would come under the control of district governments, Daily Times learnt on Thursday.

Sources said the new ordinance would make district governments responsible for introducing new syllabi and madrassa reforms and added they would also provide funding for madrassas.

“The federal government will provide funds to the provincial governments who will distribute these funds to district government according to the number of madrassas in their area,” sources said.

They said the NWFP and Punjab had raised some objections to the proposed ordinance and therefore the government had asked them to work out their proposals.

The government introduced the Madrassa Ordinance in 2002 and set up the Madrassa Education Board to implement reforms but Tanzimat-ul-Madariss Deenya (TMD), the body representing madrassas, rejected the ordinance. Maulana Abdul Malik, head of the Rabita-ul-Madariss said the TMD would reject the new ordinance as well because the government wanted to control madrassas.

He said that it was agreed upon at a meeting of TMD representatives consisting of Moin-u-Din Haider, Mehmood Ghazi and Zubaydah Jillali and a government team made up of interior, religious and education ministers in August 2002 that a nine-member committee would be formed to implement the ordinance but the issue was deadlocked.

Tanzeem-ul-Madariss head Sarfaraz Naeemi said the new ordinance would not bring about any changes. He said the TMD would meet in a few days to discuss its strategy.

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