JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman is at it again. Addressing a press conference in Rawalpindi on Thursday, he reiterated his threat to launch countrywide protests against the government's education reforms agenda for seminaries that is also to cover all public and private schools. His party, he said, would not let anyone change the religious education system. What worries him though appears to be quite different from the reason he stated. For, there is no plan to change the religious content of madressah education. They are to continue teaching Dars-e-Nizami syllabi, but the pupils will also read mainstream subjects at the matriculation and intermediate levels, taking regular boards' examinations along with their own system of qualifying as clerics. This would allow them to pursue higher education and join the open career stream - just like the Maulana is a religious scholar and a career politician, too!

Notably, a few months ago, Ittehad-e-Tanzeemaat Madaris, the body that oversees seminary affairs, signed an agreement with the government for the registration of madressahs with the Federal Ministry of Education, and also assistance for training of general subjects teachers. Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood has also been in consultations with governments in the provinces, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan for the introduction of a uniform education system in all three tiers of education system: private and public schools as well as madressahs. Only the JUI-F leader is vehemently opposed to the reform effort. This is not difficult to understand. After all, pupils and alumni of his madressahs are his real support base he uses for staging his party's power shows; they also comes in handy in other times of need, like for the recent "Azadi March" he launched against Prime Minister Imran Khan's government. He indirectly acknowledged that fact when he said at the presser "the madaris are with democracy." Unfortunately, for the same reason he also disparaged Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government's decision to distribute honorariums among seminary students "in the name of scholarships from the national exchequer". Considering that an overwhelming majority of seminary students come from poor families, it makes little sense to stop them from accepting financial help from the government unless the JUI-F fears losing control.

The political consensus-based 20-point National Action Plan includes registration and regulation of seminaries' affairs. The JUI-F therefore should show due respect to national consensus. There can be no rational objection to registration, audit of accounts, and letting pupils be equipped with modern knowledge alongside religious learning to be able to realise their full potential and become productive members of this society.