• The president is expected to introduce an ordinance next week after the cabinet approves changes to the stalled seminary registration law.
• Cabinet gives green light to carbon markets policy to pave the way for voluntary markets and cooperative approaches.
ISLAMABAD: The government approved two key steps during Friday’s federal cabinet meeting, paving the way for the adoption of a madresah registration law that would satisfy the JUI-Fazl, as well as giving the green light to a policy that would allow the country commercialize carbon credits on the international market.
JUI-F Senator Kamran Murtaza, who was involved in preparing the legal framework under which the latest version of the Registration of Companies (Amendment) Bill will be adopted, said Sunrise on Friday that President Asif Zardari would issue an ordinance following cabinet approval.
The measures approved included amendments to the law previously passed by parliament, which would give religious seminaries the option to register themselves, either at the relevant DC office or at the General Directorate of Religious Education (DGRE).
That measure is expected to arrive next week in the form of a presidential ordinance and would be applicable to the entire federal capital, said a member of the federal cabinet. Sunrise.
He said that after the cabinet meeting, the prime minister had sent the ordinance to the Presidency, despite the president’s earlier reservations about the possible international consequences of changing the law currently in force.
“We have accepted all the demands of the JUI-F [through] the amended law,” the cabinet member said.
“After [the ordinance is promulgated]Parliament has 120 days to obtain approval from both chambers for it to become part of the law,” Senator Murtaza said. Sunrise.
The amendment to the Companies Act to move the registration of seminaries out of the DGRE was part of a deal made by the JUI-F in exchange for supporting the government in passing the 26th constitutional amendment.
Registration of seminaries was made mandatory in 2005 under an amendment to the Companies Act 1860. However, following the attack on the Army Public School in 2014, there was intense pressure to make the regulation of seminaries dependent of the Ministry of the Interior.
After three years of consultation, the five seminary boards agreed to place the madresahs under the administrative control of the Federal Department of Education.
Since 2019, ten new boards have been established, apparently posing 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 developing countries, was passed by both houses of parliament along with amendment 26. 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 glitches.”
When the Maulana heard about this development, he threatened to start 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 who supported the registration of madresahs under the DGRE and those who were in favor of moving it to the DC office, led by the JUI-F.
talking to SunrisePakistan Ulema Council Chairman Allama Tahir Ashrafi said that since seminaries provide education, they should be under the control of the Ministry of Education.
“We have accepted the decision to avoid any conflict between the clerics, even though we have a clear majority in this sector with 10 seminary boards, and the majority of 18,600 madresahs are under these boards, where around 2.2 million students They receive a modern education. along with religious learning,” he said.
Approved carbon policy
Also on Friday, the cabinet approved a carbon markets policy, which will allow the country to trade carbon credits (one carbon credit is equivalent to one tonne of CO2 equivalent) on 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 close 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 voluntary carbon markets (VCM), carbon credits can be sold to any entity on the international market after registration in the national registry, while cooperative approaches refer to carbon trading with other governments. in the form of internationally marketed mitigation results.
Projects established under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol will also be transferred to the Sustainable Development Mechanism of the Paris Agreement. Currently, Pakistan has only one such project under the Kyoto Protocol, i.e. Delta Blue Carbon, which has reportedly earned $40 million in carbon credits.
To capitalize 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 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
For a carbon project to be approved under a cooperative approach, it will go through four stages. First, a project briefing note will be submitted, followed by a letter of intent (LOI).
The LOI will result in a project design document that must be completed within a period of two years and a grace period of 180 days.
After approval of the project design document, a letter of authorization for carbon trading will be issued, said Sana Rasool, carbon markets specialist at the Ministry of Climate Change. He said Pakistan has had a good experience with the Delta Blue Carbon project which had comparatively good results and the country is well prepared to expand its reach to these markets.
Published in Dawn, December 28, 2024
