Fazl rejects madrassa registration ordinance

RAWALPINDI: Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and Secretary General of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman on Sunday rejected the amended ordinance regarding registration of religious seminaries and said that the madrassa syllabus contained no material encouraging sectarianism and extremism.

“When we do not take a single penny from the government, why should we furnish the details of our accounts to them,” he said while addressing the 64th annual Tauhed-o-Sunnat Conference at the Madrassa Darululoom.

“There is no material of hate, militancy or sectarianism in the syllabi of religious institutions,” Fazl said. He predicted that the MMA would form the government in a majority of NWFP districts. He maintained that the MMA participated in the local council elections on a non-party basis.

“The ruling elite has blatantly violated the election code of conduct in the recent elections across the country,” he alleged. He noted that Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi himself was nominating candidates for district and town nazim. He asked the Election Commissioner to take stern notice of such activities. The opposition leader said that even the US and UK had not deported foreigners despite the tragedies of September 11 and July 7. He said that expulsion of foreign students of religious institutions from Pakistan would bring a bad name to country. The government had accepted that syllabi taught at the masters’ level in universities and religious institutions was the same, he said.

“We participated in the All Parties Conference of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and it was decided that a committee would be formed to settle all issues with consensus,” Fazl said in response to a question. He said that he had received no response from the ARD yet.

He said that the ban on the use of loudspeakers during Friday prayers was baseless. online

Home | National