Tahir Ashrafi hints at mobilising five lac supporters if govt caves in to Fazlur Rehman

Chairman Pakistan Ulema Council Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, while addressing a conference on Seminary Reforms and Registration in Islamabad on Monday, indirectly warned the government of mass mobilisation if the existing system of religious school registration was not maintained.

Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi said, “This statement may sound harsh. We have enough madrassas in Islamabad which can easily mobilise twenty-five to thirty thousand people: and if Maulana Tayyab Tahiri were informed, then five to six lac supporters will arrive.

“Someone else may have manpower in the realm of politics, but in the field of madrassas, we have manpower numbering in the hundreds of thousands,” he warned.

Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi remarked, “Separate platforms exist for politics; we will not allow playing with the future of hundreds of thousands of students of seminaries.”

Ashrafi passed the comments after Maulana Fazlur Rehman demanded revisions in the seminary registration process.

Ashrafi criticised JUI-F's demand, highlighting a 2019 agreement that settled the registration issue, warning against repetitive demands for new laws.

“You accepted the agreement in 2019 and are now demanding a new law; you will demand another law after four years,” Tahir Ashrafi lamented.

It should be mentioned here that Ashrafi is of the view that madrassas are educational institutions and should, therefore, be registered under the Ministry of Education. However, Maulana Fazlur Rehman maintained that madrassas should be registered under the Ministry of Industries, and the government should revive the 2019 madrassas registration process.

Societies Registration Amendment Act 2024 was passed along with the 26th Constitutional Amendment, according to which it was decided that the madrassas registration would brought under the Societies Act 1860.

However, following the approval from the parliament, President Asif Ali Zardari objected to the bill (Societies Registration Amendment Act 2024) and sent it back to the parliament.

On Monday conference along with Ashrafi, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, while commenting on the Madrassa Bill, stated that it could not become law due to some legal complications, adding, “the suggestions given by the scholars had been noted, and the final solution would be found after thorough consultations.”

“Registration of 18,000 Madrasahs is the result of the efforts of the Department of Religious Education”, he added.

Meanwhile, reacting to the conference on seminary reforms and registration, Maulana Fazlur Rehman in a press conference at Charsadda on Monday said that his party doesn’t want confrontation with the state, but registration of seminaries. “They wanted to give us a new system in 2019, but it was just an agreement,” he said.

"All relevant stakeholders, including the agencies, agreed on the bill, which the National Assembly and the Senate later passed," he said, asking why President Asif Zardari returned the amendment bill?

He also accused the authorities of pushing the seminaries towards extremism, alleging that they want to control the religious seminaries on orders of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United States and the West.