The Ittehad Tanzeemat-i-Madaris Pakistan (ITMP) — a federation of the main madressah oversight bodies in the country — demanded on Monday night that a gazette notification be issued for the Societies Registration (Amend­ment) Act 2024.

Controversy persists in the country related to the new law passed by parliament which relates to the regulatory affairs of madressahs. President Zardari has yet to grant it presidential assent, prompting the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) to criticise ruling coalition parties for using ‘delaying tactics’ regarding the bill.

The bill pertains to the registration of seminaries by the relevant deputy commissioner’s office, as it was before 2019.

President Zardari had returned the bill to the National Assembly with certain objections on October 29, before flying to the United Arab Emirates. The bill was approved by the Senate on Oct 20, along with the 26th amendment. It passed through the National Assembly on Oct 21 and was forwarded to the president on Oct 22.

When the JUI-F chief learnt of the development, he threatened to launch protests against the government to force it to accept the bill. Maulana Fazlur Rehman had said that a meeting would be held with Mufti Taqi Usmani to form a joint stance on the issue.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad and reading out a resolution agreed upon by all members of today’s meeting, Mufti Muneebur Rehman, head of board for madressahs of Barelvi school of thought, said: “This bill has adopted a legal form … our demand is that the gazette notification be issued for it without delay so immediate implementation can begin on it.”

He said the meeting’s participants deliberated upon the matter in detail and agreed upon the joint statement after considerable debate.

Recounting the act’s passage, he said once the act was sent again to the president on November 1 after addressing his complaints, there was no further issue raised within 10 days.

“However, new reservations were attached on Nov 13 which were inapplicable due to the timeframe expiring,” he said.

Mufti Muneeb said reservations about the act could not be raised again.

He said the collective opinion of today’s participants was that the government would accept their demand, adding that otherwise, they would reconvene to determine the future course of action with consensus.

Fazl said an issue was created regarding the act that it was controversial after ample time had passed, adding that he would have himself sat down for talks on any issues if they were brought up in a timely manner.

He said those gathered beside him wanted to resolve the manner with the government in a peaceful, legal and democratic manner, adding that the government should reciprocate in kind.

The bill in question was part of an agreement between JUI-F and the government in support of the 26th Amendment. The Societies Registration (Amendment) Act, 2024 extends the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and includes provisions for the registration of madressahs under the relevant deputy commissioner office.

The bill specifies that a madressah with more than one campus needs only one registration, and every madressah must submit an annual report of its educational activities to the registrar. Additionally, each madressah must have its accounts audited by an auditor and submit the audit report to the registrar. The bill also states that no madressah should teach or publish literature that promotes militancy, sectarianism, or religious hatred.

In October 2019, the PTI-led government transferred the registration of seminaries to the education departments.

After more than five years of deliberations involving the government, interior ministry, security agencies, provinces and NGOs, the federal government accepted the demand of religious groups that seminaries be regulated under the education departments, viewing them as educational institutes.

Authorities had initially proposed that seminaries fall under the regulation of the Interior Ministry and provincial home departments. The decision by the PTI-led government in 2019 was welcomed by the joint body of religious seminaries, representing all four mainstream Islamic sects in the country.

However, due to political differences with the PTI government, seminaries affiliated with the JUI-F rejected the idea of placing madressahs under the education department and opposed incorporating conventional education into religious seminaries.

Under the Societies Act of 1860, religious seminaries were supposed to be registered by the relevant deputy commissioner’s (DC) office. Traditionally, there were five seminary boards — four belonging to the respective mainstream sects: Barelvi, Shia, Deobandi, and Ahle Hadith schools of thought, while the fifth board administered the affairs of seminaries under the control of the Jamaat-i-Islami.

However, after three years of consultations following the 2014 Army Public School Peshawar attack, these five boards agreed with the government that seminaries should be placed under the administrative control of the Federal Education Department.

Subsequently, the Directo­rate General of Religious Edu­ca­tion was established and the government also deci­ded to make rules allowing the establi­s­h­ment of more madressah boa­rds. Since 2019, ten new boards have been established, which seemingly pose a challenge to the monopoly enjoyed by the five traditional seminary boards.

In October this year, the government had agreed to introduce the Societies Registration (Amend­ment) Act, 2024 as it attempted to woo the JUI-F chief for the sake of the 26th Amendment.

This piece of legislation, which would revert control of seminaries from the education department to the DCs, was approved by both houses of parliament. However, it was not signed by President Zardari, who returned the bill to the National Assembly in late October due to “several technical flaws”.

As the controversy regarding the bill refuses to die down, a joint session of parliament will be convened in the current week to possibly take it up.

Sources in the National Assembly Secretariat had told Dawn that the summary was prepared to call the joint session on Tuesday and the date was finalised after consultations with the JUI-F leadership, currently unhappy with how the abovementioned piece of legislation was being handled.