Dear Pakistani secular liberals, you've got to get better at political coalition building. You know else doesn't trust the government to teach their children religion in schools? Very religious parents. They can be your biggest allies in rolling this back. Here is how. https://twitter.com/MariamChughtai/status/1292796258936127489

Religious parents are suspicious of Islamiyat curricula for the opposite reason: they do not think it is an austere enough version of the religion. Give them a version of implementing this constitutional clause that allows them to teach their kids as they please...

... and then will ally with you. Something like: the government will give school credit for religious studies, but will not offer the classes itself, giving parents the freedom to get that academic credit from other sources, including being able to teach it themselves.

That can still count as making the "teaching... compulsory" in that the government can make the academic credit for Islamiyat compulsory, while acknowledging different preferences of how parents want to teach the subject and their religious values.

The requirement to "encourage and facilitate the learning of Arabic language" is even easier: federally subsidised Arabic departments at public universities that offer courses to the public to anyone who chooses to enroll.

I used to attend a Deobandi madrassah while I was taking my O level exams and I considered the curriculum too wishy-washy. If someone had told my parents and I that I could take what I was learning at the madrassah as a substitute for the course, we would've jumped at the chance.

The key to secular liberalism succeeding in Pakistan is to have the 'liberal' part of it become front and center: propose policies that give people the freedom to choose, including the freedom to be VERY religious.

You know what the very religious parents will bring to this argument against the @MariamChughtai types: they can outflank her on the right. You're bringing a knife to this gun-fight. They'll bring a bazooka. Learn to play nice with others.