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Pak. religious schools reject ordinance

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD July 7. The Musharraf Government has failed to convince the religious parties and groups on the rationale behind its recent ordinance to regulate the functioning of religious schools.

A meeting convened by the Ministry of Religious Affairs with representatives of religious parties and groups failed to reach any consensus on the contentious subject. Some of the representatives were categorical in their rejection of any `government interference' in religious schools and the Government on its part expressed its determination to go ahead with the ordinance.

The Pakistan Interior Minister, Moinuddin Haider, who was part of the Government delegation at the meeting made it clear that the Government would enforce the ordinance. A section of the religious schools and parties have threatened to take to the streets in protest.The basic problem seems to lie in the perception of the Government and the religious groups on the role of the schools. The Musharraf regime is convinced that a section of the schools have become centres for `jehad and sectarianism'. Religious parties and groups on the other hand say that these schools are one of the oldest social institutions imparting knowledge about Islam. They believe that the military government is trying to regulate them under pressure from the United States and other Western allies.

At the meeting on Saturday, the Government rejected the demand for withdrawal of the ordinance but promised to incorporate changes in the law if the religious parties made a strong case for them. "Nothing is final. It is a controversial law,'' Sajjid Mir, president, Wafaqul Madaris Al-Salfiya Pakistan, told reporters after the meeting.

Prof. Mir said some provisions of the ordinance, including those concerning the compulsory registration were unacceptable. Some of the institutions had been functioning for more than 200 years and no intervention or restriction on them would be accepted.

The Government might have its own compulsions and "we know that all is being done under international pressure'', he said. The introduction of contemporary subjects and change in the syllabus were the internal matter of these schools and no outside intervention would be allowed.

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