Pakistan President signs law to regulate religious schools

Asif Ali Zardari, the President of Pakistan, has signed a bill into law requiring the registration of religious schools in the country. Under this law, these schools must submit an annual report on their educational activities to the government, avoid promoting extremism and violence, and teach contemporary sciences.

According to a report from Dawn newspaper on Sunday, the law stipulates that religious schools will be registered under the Ministry of Industry, rather than the Ministry of Education, as was the previous practice.

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan (JUI-F) has hailed the signing of this bill and its passage into law as a victory in the battle to preserve the supremacy of Parliament and the Constitution.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, a prominent political leader from the JUI-F, expressed his approval of the final decision regarding the religious schools registration bill and congratulated the administrators of religious schools for the success.

Under the new law, religious schools must be registered under the Associations Act. They are required to submit an annual report on their educational activities, along with a financial report audited by an independent accountant.

The law explicitly states that no religious school should teach or publish content that promotes militancy, sectarianism, or religious hatred.

Additionally, each religious school must incorporate contemporary subjects into its curriculum, according to a gradual program based on available resources.

This new law appears to be a response to the growing power of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other extremist groups, many of which consist of former religious school graduates who had previously fought the Afghanistan government. These groups have escalated attacks on Pakistani security forces since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials have acknowledged that following the Taliban’s resurgence, militant groups, particularly the TTP, have intensified their assaults on security forces in Pakistan. The new law is seen as a measure to counter this threat by ensuring that religious schools no longer serve as breeding grounds for extremism.

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