December 18, 2018: CODE PAKISTAN held its second consultative dialogue in Peshawar today with religious scholars and youth on co-creating entry points for madrasah engagement.
The religious scholars were of the view that issues with regard to registration of new madrassahs, the opening of their bank accounts, and non-equivalence of madrasah certificates and degrees for government jobs and admissions in universities were sources of serious concern for them. They disagreed with the policy approaches of government that dealt with madrassahs as a security concern. They were of the opinion that since madrassahs were education institutions and were there in the first place because the government had left a vacuum in that field, they should be treated accordingly.
The religious scholars participating in the consultative dialogue were of the view that sectarian differences were more pronounced at the societal level rather than the level of the religious scholars. Therefore, they called for enhanced dialogues involving both religious scholars and common populace to increase tolerance for diversity of opinion on the interpretation of Islamic scripts. The participants of the discussion were in favor of enhancing the interaction of the students of madrassahs with the students of mainstream educational institutions.
Some religious scholars pointed out that trainings in calligraphy and the ancient knowledge of herbal medicine known as Tibb could go a long way in enabling the graduates of madrassahs to do something other than religious preaching or teaching. They maintained that calligraphy had gone out of fashion with the introduction of computer technology but that it needed revival. The participating religious scholars welcomed the role of NGOs for the welfare of the madrassahs. They, however, cautioned that all NGOs wanting to assist the madrassahs needed to follow the Islamic cultural ethos. They added that although the NGOs could work with madrassahs at all levels, there was a need to evolve a mechanism to streamline collaboration between the NGOs and the madrassahs.
The participants of the consultation included the following prominent religious scholars: Maulana Wasi Ullah, Maulana Naqeeb Ullah, Maulana Rab Nawaz, Maulana Rahat Ullah, Maulana Miraj ud Din, Maulana Nazir Mohammad, Maulana Khilafat Shah, Maulana Inzamam ul Haq, Maulana Hasan Zeb, Maulana Shabbir Ahmed, Maulana Umer bin Abdul Aziz, Maulana Rahat Ullah Qadri, Maulana Noman Rafi, Maulana Amaluddin, Maulana Nazir Hussain, Maulana Abdul Waheed Marwat, Mufti Sawab Ali, Maulana Atta ur Rehman, Maulana Abrar Azizi, Maulana Rooh ul Amin, Maulana Mohammad Sadiq, Maulana Hussain Ahmed, and Maulana Mehboob Shah Haideri.