Rooted in Tradition: Pakistan's Madrassa Reform Stalemate

Assadullah Channa critiques Pakistan’s stagnant madrassa reform efforts, highlighting clerical influence and political hesitancy as significant barriers. Despite various initiatives, madrassas remain largely unregulated, fostering radical ideologies. Channa urges sustained political resolve to modernize these religious institutions, crucial for national advancement and to curb extremism.

Sindh writer and educator Assadullah Channa has sharply criticized Pakistan's persistent failure to reform its madrassa system, branding it a 'chronic national weakness' fueled by clerical control and political timidity, as reported in the Pakistan Observer. Despite numerous initiatives, madrassas largely evade government oversight, serving as isolated hubs for religious and ideological learning.

The Pakistan Observer notes that madrassas play a vital role for low-income families, offering free education, meals, and lodging. However, Channa highlights their increasing autonomy and the state's regulatory shortcomings, which foster an environment resistant to modern educational and ideological reforms.

Efforts to reform, from General Ayub Khan's 1961 initiatives to General Musharraf's 2003 Madrasah Reform Project and the 2014 National Action Plan, have consistently been undermined by organized clerical resistance. Successive governments, reliant on religious leaders for political support, have struggled to impose necessary changes.

This dependency has rendered clerical groups almost inviolable, able to stymie reform under the guise of protecting Islam, according to Channa. Consequently, a parallel education system emerges, producing graduates disconnected from Pakistan's modern social and economic fabric, as cited by the Pakistan Observer.

Channa asserts that the core issue extends beyond administration to ideology. Many madrassas promote exclusivist doctrines opposing pluralism and fostering rigid Islamic interpretations. Despite heightened global attention and domestic tragedies like the 2014 Peshawar attack, reform attempts have remained inadequate and transient.

Channa concludes that without enduring political determination and clerical acceptance of change, madrassa education will continue to stagnate, obstructing national progress and perpetuating extremism, as reported by the Pakistan Observer. (ANI)

(With inputs from agencies.)