PESHAWAR: The central leaders of different schools of thought have demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to establish a cell in the education department for dealing with the affairs of their seminaries if it is serious about their registration. They opposed the government decision of registering the seminaries with the concerned board of intermediate and secondary education.

They expressed their views in a meeting with the high-ups of the Elementary and Secondary Education Department and representatives of the education boards, which was held recently in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House, Islamabad, according to sources.

They said that prominent among those who attended the meeting included Ruet-i-Hilal Committee chairman and religious scholar Mufti Muneebur Rehman, Tanzeematul Madaris chief Qari Hanif Jallandhri, special secretary education Dr Khalid Khalid Khan and Peshawar Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education chairman Dr Fazlur Rehman.

The meeting’s agenda was to seek opinion of the central leadership of different schools of thought regarding the provincial government’s decision to register their religious schools with the education boards.

Object to affiliation with education boards

The provincial government had initiated the seminaries’ registration with the education boards about two months ago in the light of the decision taken by the federal interior ministry with the consultation of all provinces.

In this regard, the Elementary and Secondary Education Department has asked all the boards of intermediate and secondary education in the province to register the seminaries in their respective jurisdiction as a first step towards mainstreaming seminaries.

The education department also prepared a registration pro forma consisting of 11 pages, which has already been provided to the boards for onward distribution among the seminaries.

After distribution of the registration pro forma, the education department held a meeting with the provincial level religious scholars who supported their seminaries’ registration, but asked the government to take their central leadership on board.

The sources said that when officials of the education department met their central leaders they agreed on seminaries registration, but not with the education boards and instead insisted on establishment of a cell in the education department for the purpose.

They said that the scholars were of the view that education boards were only responsible for the issuance of the certificate up to intermediate level while the seminaries qualification was equal to the master’s degree.

“The religious scholars were right in their stance as the universities have the power to issue the degrees while the education boards are limited to issuing the certificates only,” one of the participants of Islamabad meeting told Dawn.

He said that another major demand of the religious scholars during the meeting was to ask the people at the helm of affairs in the provincial government to meet them instead of the education department officials who were not so powerful in decision making.

“The positive aspect we witnessed in the meeting was that the runners of the religious schools want to register their institutions with the education department,” he said. Currently, seminaries are registered with the provincial industry department.

The religious scholars also agreed to meet all the conditions of the education department required for the registration of seminaries, but at the same time they demanded that their institutions should be treated at par with the private schools, he said. He added that they would forward the minutes of the meeting to the government for further deliberations and a decision.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2017