Private educational institutions in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) are protesting against the government's decision to replace the prevailing uniform of shirt and trousers with the traditional dress of salwar kameez from the next educational year.
President of the Private Educational Institutions Management Association (PEIMA) Nazar Hussain says, "It is a nonsensical decision which attempts to divert public attention from real problems plaguing schools here. Islam does not forbid the wearing of pants and shirts because they do not expose the body."
A member of the ruling Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Khalid Waqar Chamkani tabled a resolution in the provincial legislature last month, declaring the traditional dress as the new uniform. Chamkani argued that trousers and shirts were un-Islamic and a sign of slavery, apart from imposing a financial burden on parents.
The resolution is to be implemented from next March in 2475 private and semi-government schools operating under the control of the NWFP government.
NWFP education minister Maulana Fazl Ali, says the decision was motivated by a desire to introduce uniformity in the education system.
Hussain says his organization plans to formulate a strategy to oppose the government's decision, once they receive a formal notification in this regard. "If the government is sincere in wishing to reform the educational system through bringing in uniformity, we are ready to give it suggestions, but we will not support such a ban," he fumes.
Missionary schools under provincial government control say they will implement the government decision if forced, but ironically, the management of Muslim owned private schools is determined to resist what they castigate as feudal and irrational.
Says vice principal of the Saint Johns Cathedral Church School Anwar Ghulam, "We will implement the government verdict if pushed, though we much prefer trousers and shirts as they are easier to maintain."
Students are also upset over the Islamist government's latest move. Declares a student of Edwards College in NWFP's capital, Peshawar, Hassnain Abbas, 18, "If the government is taking such a decision in the name of religion, we will definitely resist it. We feel comfortable in our present uniform and look smart too."
Parents too are up in arms over the government's new rule; far from agreeing it would lessen expenses. Says Mir Waiz, 45 whose son studies in a private school, "The government is making an issue of a non-issue, at a time when people are still waiting for measures to improve their economic condition."
Currently, only government run schools in the province have adopted the traditional dress as school uniform. Most of them are largely shunned due to their poor educational standards and lack of basic infrastructure.
Observers feel the government will not be able to enforce the new rule in many of the NWFP's private educational institutions, which are under the control of the federal government, where no such legislation currently exists.
Observers are experiencing a sense of déjà vu.. In the early 70s, Islamist chief minister Maulana Mufti Mehood, father of MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, imposed a similar ban, not just in educational institutions, but government offices as well.