The Religious Affairs Ministry has prepared a draft proposal on an Islamic Education Commission (IEC), which will be sent to the president for approval, sources said. Sources said that Ejazul Haq, the minister for religious affairs, would meet President Pervez Musharraf to get his approval and later meet Ittehad-e-Tanzimat-e-Madaras-e-Dinya (ITMD) representatives to finalise the draft. According to the draft, the president will nominate the commissionÂ’s chairman and the ITMD the deputy chairman, both serving a three-year term. Representatives of five wafaqs representing major sects, the religious affairs secretary, the education secretary, a religious scholar and an education expert would be members of the commission. The draft also proposes introducing the federal education board curriculum at seminaries. The wafaqs would nominate five people who would represent the ITMD and the religious affairs and education ministries would appoint two scholars.
According to the proposal, the five wafaqs will get the status of education boards and their degrees will be equal to matriculation, FA and BA. “But the ITMD would have to centralise its examination system and the commission’s chairman would be the degree-issuing authority,” sources said, adding that the ITMD would make its recommendations to the chairman.