Increase font size Decrease font size Reset font size

Report on state of madressahs in Pakistan launched

By Hasan Mansoor 2015-07-31
KARACHI: A report outlining reasons behind cultivation of a culture of intolerance in madressahs and phenomenal rise in their numbers, especially since Gen Ziaul Haq`s military dictatorship, was launched here on Thursday.

Eminent historian Dr Mubarak Ali spoke on the contents of the report through Skype from Lahore while two teachers from Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) formed a panel to share their views on the report which was launched at the office of the Nowcommunities.

Titled `The Madrasa Conundrum The state of religious education in Pakistan`, the report was authored by Umair Khalil, lead researcher of the non-governmental research organisation, HIVE.

The panellists agreed that though the report did not answer all questions about the issue but it did raise several questions, which needed to be answeredthrough further investigations and research.

Dr Ali spoke about the history of madressahs and said they were inherently sectarian in their nature from the outset. He saw economic and social disparity as the root cause of the problem and called for a uniform educational policy, which, according to him was the only panacea for settling the problem.

Dr Riaz Shaikh said the report showed that students of cadet colleges after the madressah students were prone to intolerance, which was a result of the curriculum chosen to develop their mindset in accordance with the aspirations of the ruling establishment.

Dr Tayyaba Tamim said that madressahs were nurturing a mindset which was inherently intolerant towards other sects and faiths.

The report said the number of madressahs in the country had crossed 35,000 from fewer than 300 since the inception of Pakistan.

However, she said, their numbers saw phenomenal rise af ter theSoviet invasion of Afghanistan during Gen Zia`s regime. `After 11 years of Zia`s rule, the madressah total ballooned to 2,801 with Deobandis accounting for 64 per cent of the total and the Barelvis only 25pc,` said the report.

It said after the downfall of the Zia regime, the state continued to have an interest in supporting a particular religious group to play a role in the ongoing proxy war with India for Kashmir.

The increase in the number of madressahs between 1988 and 2002 showed a significant rise in Deobandi seminaries, which increased from 1,779 to 7,000.

The Barelvi seminaries rose from 717 to 1,585, Ahle Hadith from 161 to 376, Shia from 47 to 419 and Jamaat-i-Islami`s seminaries from 97 to 500. The total madressahs in 1988 were 2,801, which shot up to 9,880 in 2002.

The report refers to various sources about the number of students enrolled with the madressahs. One report claims that some 3.5 million students were enrolled with 35,337 madressahs inPakistan while another quotes the Auqaf authorities as saying the number of students was 26,131.

Conflicting official figures put the number of madressahs in Punjab at between 14,000 and 16,000. Similarly, the ministry of religious affairs says there are 7,118 madressahs in Sindh, while the provincial Auqaf department puts their number at a modest 2,800.

In Balochistan, the number ranges between 2,704 and a whopping 13,000 while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the official figures are between 1,354 and 3,136.

The report also discusses some surveys conducted by researchers.

One such survey published in a book by C. Christine Fair claims madressahs are not the most prominent recruitment venue for militancy; indeed fewer than a quarter of the militants (33 of 141) ever attended theological schools.

Of those 33 madressah products, 27 attended a madressah for four or feweryears,andmostalsoattended public schools. In contrast, the remaining 82 were well educated by Pakistani standards, with atleast a matriculation qualification.

Only nine of the 141 had no formal education. The militants in that sample were better educated than the average Pakistani male.

Another survey by Tariq Rahman says the madressah students were the most intolerant of all the other student groups in Pakistan.

The survey asked the same set of questions from diverse groups that included students of madressahs, Urdu-medium schools, Englishmedium schools, cadet colleges and public schools, government colleges, public universities and private universities.

The primary finding of the survey was that madressah students were more likely to back war and militant conflict and less inclined to support equal rights for members of the oppressed groups than their counterparts in secular schools.

The report also discussed the issues of economic integration of madressah students, registration, regulations and reforms and gave some recommendations.