The rift over the assent for the madrassa bill has come to a pass. The President of the Republic has finally signed it into law after a hiatus, which apparently was aimed at arm-twisting an ally of the coalition government. The JUIF, which was part of the controversial 26th amendment to the Constitution, had grabbed the religious school’s registration law as a concession for throwing its weight behind the legislation package. With the Societies Registration Act 2024 becoming a statute, all the JUIF-led seminaries will be registered by, and accountable to, the Ministry of Industries, as per the party’s wish. This makes it mandatory for the seminaries to file an annual report detailing their education curriculum and finances.
The question is: what prevented the government from instantly signing it into law and instead dragging it to almost becoming a crisis for itself? The plot has thickened as the beleaguered government has now settled for an understanding with other religious factions, who run madrassas too, enabling them to register their wards with the Ministry of Education. Under a new thaw, an ordinance has been promulgated to oblige the anti-JUIF factions paving the way for a parallel paradigm of religious schools registration and monitoring. That simply speaks of the government’s inability to prevail over one of its crucial allies, resulting in hoodwinking a formally passed legislation.
The coalition dispensation played on both sides of the wicket to grab a deal, which many believe was meant to belittle the JUI-F for reasons of exigency. The bill’s outcome, which is now in a dichotomy status, should have better been sent back to the bicameral urging it to address the loopholes and make it more comprehensive. But the President preferred to hold it back as long as he could and then gave it his assent for a proverbial deal. This exposure has also confirmed the haste with which the 26th Amendment was bulldozed, making it a point of pondering for the opposition and the judiciary to sit in judgment.
Editorial published in the Express Tribune on 1st January 2025
