Govt close to settlement of madressah conundrum

• President expected to introduce ordinance next week after cabinet signs off on changes to stalled seminary registration law
• Cabinet green-lights carbon markets policy to pave way for voluntary markets, cooperative approaches

ISLAMABAD: The government signed off on two key steps during Friday’s meeting of the federal cabinet, paving the way for the adoption of a madressah registration law that would satisfy the JUI-Fazl, as well as green-lighting a policy that would allow the country to trade carbon credits on the international market.

JUI-F’s Senator Kamran Murtaza, who was involved in the preparation of the legal framework under which the latest version of the Societies Registration (Amendment) law will be adopted, told Dawn on Friday that President Asif Zardari would issue an ordinance following the cabinet nod.

The steps okayed included amendments to the law previously passed by parliament, which would give religious seminaries the option to register themselves, either with the relevant DC office or the Directorate General of Religious Education (DGRE).

That move is expected to come next week in the shape of a presidential ordinance, and would be applicable to the extent of the federal capital, a member of the federal cabinet told Dawn.

He said that following the cabinet meeting, the prime minister had sent the ordinance to the Presidency, despite the president’s earlier reservations with the possible international fallout of changing the law currently in vogue.

“We have accepted all demands of the JUI-F [through] the amended act,” the cabinet member said.

“After [the ordinance is promulgated], parliament has 120 days to secure its approval from both the houses to make it part of the law,” Senator Murtaza told Dawn.

The amendment to the Societies Act to shift the registration of seminaries away from the DGRE was part of a deal, made by the JUI-F in exchange for supporting the government for the passage of the 26th constitutional amendment.

The registration of seminaries was made mandatory in 2005 under an amendment to the Societies Act 1860. However, following the attack on the Army Public School in 2014, there was intense pressure to place the regulation of seminaries under the interior ministry.

After three years of consultations, the five seminary boards agreed to place madressahs under the administrative control of the Federal Education Department.

Since 2019, ten new boards have been established, which seemingly pose a challenge to the monopoly enjoyed by the five traditional seminary boards.

The Societies Registration (Amendment) Bill 2024, which would revert control of seminaries from the education department to the DCs, was approved by both houses of parliament alongside the 26th amendment. However, it was not signed by President Asif Ali Zardari, who returned the bill to the National Assembly in late October due to “several technical flaws”.

When the Maulana learnt of this development, he threatened to launch protests against the government to force it to accept the bill. However, the delay in its approval led to an open war of narratives between clerics supporting the registration of madressahs under the DGRE, and those in favour of shifting it under the DC office, led by the JUI-F.

Talking to Dawn, Pakistan Ulema Council Chairman Allama Tahir Ashrafi said that since seminaries provide education, they should be under the education ministry.

“We have agreed to the decision to avoid any conflict among the clerics, despite the fact that we have a clear majority in this sector with 10 seminary boards, and majority of 18,600 madressahs are under these boards, where around 2.2 million students get modern education along with religious learning,” he said.

Carbon policy approved

Also on Friday, the cabinet approved a carbon markets policy, which will allow the country to trade carbon credits — one carbon credit is equal to one tonne of CO2 equivalent — in the international market under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The adoption of the policy follows the launch of the carbon market policy at COP29 in Baku, hoping to attract green investments, achieve environmental stability, and plug the climate finance gap. The approval of the carbon markets policy by the federal cabinet paves the way for cooperative approaches and voluntary carbon markets.

Under the voluntary carbon markets (VCM), carbon credits can be sold to any entity in the international market after their registration with the national registry whereas the cooperative approaches pertain to carbon trading with other governments in the form of internationally traded mitigation outcomes.

The projects set up under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism will also be shifted to the Sustainable Development Mechanism of the Paris Agreement. At present, Pakistan has only one such project under the Kyoto Protocol i.e. Delta Blue Carbon, which has reportedly earned $40 million in carbon credits.

In order to capitalise on carbon markets, the government is working on a national carbon registry, which will have a database of carbon projects. This registry will be linked to other national registries as well as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

For a carbon project to be approved under a cooperative approach, it will go through four stages. Firstly, a project note information will be submitted, which will be followed by a letter of intent (LOI).

The LOI will lead to a project design document which will have to be completed in a two-year period and a grace period of 180 days.

After the approval of the project design document, a letter of authorisation will be issued for carbon trading, said Sana Rasool, a carbon market specialist at the climate change ministry. She said Pakistan has had a good experience with the Delta Blue Carbon project that comparatively did well and the country is well-prepared to expand its reach into these markets.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2024