The authorities are considering the establishment of vocational training centres for the students  of madrasas to convey a positive message to the rest of the world

For the first time in the history of the country a four-day Sports Festival for the madrasas (religious teaching institutions) of the newly merged tribal districts – under the aegis of the Directorate of Sports of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, took place at the Qayyum Sports Stadium in Peshawar last week.

More than 800 students of the madrasas from seven tribal districts and six sub divisions participated in seven different categories of the games. The athletes competing in the events were from North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Kurram, Orakzai, Khyber, Mohmand, Bajaur, while the sub-districts included Peshawar, FR Kohat, FR Bannu, FR Lakki, FR Dera Ismail Khan and FR Tank.

The first inter-madrasa competition was won by the Bajaur District as it secured first positions in most of the games. Shah Mohammad – a madrasa student hailing from South Waziristan, represented his team at the football championship in the festival. It was his first visit to the provincial capital. “I have never been as happy as I was during my visit to Peshawar because majority of the madrasa students had assembled to take part in the healthy activity”, he said while talking to Bol News. Throwing light on the extracurricular activities at the madras, Mohammad Shah said we have regular sports breaks at our institution. And games like football, cricket and badminton are the most popular ones among the students.

He also said that Islam explicitly encourages Muslims to teach their children different sports in an attempt to make them strong and physically active.

Highlighting the dearth of playgrounds and other sports facilities in the tribal areas, he urged the authorities to do more in this regard. We have been through a rough patch, and after the restoration peace here, we feel that a lot of catching up is needed, he added. Shrugging of the taboos associated with madrasas in the tribal belt of the country, he said the students of the religious institutions have dreams and aspirations too. Many of them love playing sports especially football that comes naturally to them.

Member of the triumphant football side at the sports festival, Mohammad Shah said that Brazil and France are the two most popular international football teams among the madrasa students.

Currently Pakistan has more than 30,000 religious schools or madrasas that provide free education to around 3.5 million students across the country.

Since the 9/11 incident took place in 2001, the mosque-attached madrassas have become the talk of the western media with regard to the war against terror in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

Amjad Qamar – a Islamabad based journalist who is working on Police reforms in the country, while talking to Bol News said that the jihad narrative was formed in the country during the Soviet war.

Furthermore, he said in the light of his research, that connecting terrorism and jihad to the madrasa teachings is not fair as there have been many more terrorism incidents that involved university graduates.

The capital city-based journalist said that after the military operation, the extremists’ narrative associated with the madrasas is now changing and instead of reporting on the militancy and military operations, the sports activities are also being reported too in the media, which is a health sign, Qamar added.

Lauding the efforts of the authorities for holding the four-day sports festival, he said that it was a great initiative that provided the students of madrasas to not only exhibit their talents but also to get together with each other at this platform to convey the message of peace to the world.  Qamar also laid emphasis on the restructuring of the madrasas and suggested the authorities to bring about reforms in the administrative and financial sectors of the institutions with special importance to the curriculum. The Corps Commander Peshawar, Lt. General Faiz Hameed was the chief guest at the sports festival.

While addressing the inaugural ceremony, the chief guest hailed the efforts of the organisers. He said that the participation of students of religious schools of the tribal districts in sports competition is the real change and this has highlighted the true picture of the madrasas.

Furthermore, he said the purpose of education is to polish the youth into becoming productive members of the society. He also said the students of religious institutions are being provided opportunities to exhibit their hidden talent in the field of sports as well.

The authorities are considering the establishment of vocational training centers for the students in madrasas to convey a positive message to the rest of the world. The Secretary Sports KPK, Tahir Orakzai highlighted the initiative taken by the provincial government to involve the students of various religious madrassas of the integrated tribal districts in healthy activities.

Talking to the media, Pir Abdullah Shah, Director Sports for the merged areas said that they had taken the initiative on the directives of the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to involve the students of various madrasas in sports activities to inculcate the spirit of competition in the field of sports besides education. The management of the madrasas were all praise on the introduction of inter-madrasa sports festival. They were of the view that such events would convey the true image of the religious institutions to the rest of the world.