Pakistan's fear of clerics dooms Madrassa reforms

Sindh [Pakistan], December 5 : Sindh-based writer and educator Assadullah Channa, in his article published in Pakistan Observer, has criticised Pakistan's repeated failures to reform its madrassa education system, calling it a "chronic national weakness rooted in clerical dominance and political cowardice."

Channa argues that despite decades of promises and multiple reform drives, Madaaris continue to operate beyond government oversight, serving as both religious and ideological training grounds isolated from the modern world.

According to the Pakistan Observer, madrassas hold immense social importance, especially for low-income families, as they provide free education, food, and shelter.

However, Channa points out that their growing autonomy and the state's inability to regulate them have created an environment that resists modernisation and fosters radical thinking.

From General Ayub Khan's 1961 initiative to introduce contemporary subjects to General Musharraf's 2003 Madrasah Reform Project and the National Action Plan (NAP) of 2014, every effort has been derailed by organised clerical opposition.

Successive governments have failed to challenge the power of religious leaders, often relying on them for political legitimacy.

This dependence, he notes, has transformed clerical groups into untouchable entities, capable of blocking reforms under the pretext of defending Islam.

The result, Channa writes, is a parallel education system that produces graduates detached from the socioeconomic realities of modern Pakistan, as cited by Pakistan Observer.

The problem is not merely administrative but ideological. Many madrassas, Channa argues, still propagate exclusivist doctrines that reject pluralism and glorify rigid interpretations of Islam.

Despite global scrutiny and domestic tragedies like the 2014 Peshawar school attack, reform efforts have been half-hearted and temporary.

Channa concludes that unless the Pakistani state shows sustained political will and religious leaders embrace change, madrassa education will remain trapped in stagnation, hindering national progress and perpetuating extremism, as reported by Pakistan Observer.

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