ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how Pakistan's governments have limited their own ability to shape private social institutions, such as private religious education. It suggests that the madrasah sector represents to its inhabitants not only a traditional religious sector that should be protected from modern secular forces, but also a public good that no government – as government relies ultimately on force and the threat of force – can possibly create. The chapter argues that many madrasah educators see the Pakistani madrasah as an institution, encouraged by the Qur'an and Hadith, that is intended for the public good but that can only be produced privately by those with faith and not by the government. Madaris represent a kind of public good that neither government schools nor private schools can replicate. In Pakistan, the provision of government-organised public goods is complicated by the legacies of imperial rule under which government schools were created.
