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Pak. allocates Rs.14 billion for religious schools

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD July 4. Even as the scheduled meeting between the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, and representatives of religious parties and groups to discuss the new law on regulation of religious schools has been postponed, the Government has announced that Rs. 14 billion has been earmarked as assistance to the schools prepared to abide by the new legislation.

The new legislation on madrassas has been a bone of contention between the religious groups and the military establishment. The law was a sequel to the promise made by Gen. Musharraf in his January 12 address to the nation to curb religious and sectarian fundamentalism.

While the religious groups have accused the military establishment of enacting the law to please the United States and western countries, Gen. Musharraf has sought to convince them that the integration of religious schools into the mainstream would help the students find gainful employment.

Some of the religious schools in Pakistan are known as ``jehad factories'' for motivating the youngsters to wage ``jehad'' (holy war) in defence of the rights of Muslim brethren in different parts of the world. A number of the senior Ministers in the erstwhile Taliban regime of Afghanistan were products of such schools.

Under the new law proposed by the Musharraf Government, it is obligatory for all the religious schools to register themselves with a board to be set up by the Government and declare their sources of income.

They would also be subject to audit. The new rules require that the foreign students enrolled produce a `no objection certificates' from their respective governments. Only those registered with the new body would be eligible for assistance and schools that fail to do this would be declared illegal.

Presiding over a high-level meeting here, the Pakistan Education Minister, Zubaida Jalal, said that efforts to bring the religious schools into the mainstream were in the final stages. The Ministry of Religious Affairs and representatives of madrassas were involved in the process.

The Minister told the meeting that the Government was committed to introduce new concepts in religious education, compatible with the modern technological era. It would ensure introduction of uniform syllabus and new curriculum down to the district level.

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