Consensus on Madaris funding, foreign students, PM told

ISLAMABAD: In an update on the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP), Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was informed on Friday that there was a consensus on the registration, regulation, financing, curriculum, audit and foreign students and the relevant data was being shared with the provincial governments.
He was told that admissions of foreign students had been stopped and in his connection the National Police Bureau was setting up a database with the cooperation of Nadra. He was also informed that 233 militants having links with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or its affiliates had been identified.
Around 60 entities have been put on the list of proscribed organisations; one is on the watchlist, while 171 are on the list of the United Nations.Under the category of Sectarian Terrorism, 294 proclaimed offenders have been identified, 547 cases registered under hate speech, 416 arrests made, 83 items confiscated and 41 shops sealed.
Similarly, 26 cases were registered over terrorist financing, 32 arrested and an amount of Rs71.5 million recovered.The prime minister was informed that 22 tasks, including the constitution of military courts, transfer of cases and steps to counter terrorists, had so far been implemented.
A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for transfer of cases from the provinces was being put in place, and approved cases would be sent to the proposed nine military courts.The federal government, in coordination with the Ministry of Defence, has planned to have a well-trained and well-equipped Counter Terrorism Force that will have 5,000 personnel from the Punjab, 1,000 from Balochistan, 800 from Sindh and 3,000 from the KP.
Regarding the verification of 103 million SIMs, the prime minister was told that so far 31.02 million SIMs had been verified and the process would be completed by mid-April.He was informed that laws regarding the blocking of social media were being amended and a report would be submitted in 15 days.
About the Afghan refugees, Nawaz Sharif was told that an action plan was finalised and registration of undocumented refugees was underway. Their repatriation to camps in coordination with the provinces and to Afghanistan was in process.The prime minister was informed that a security audit of media houses and journalists in all the provinces and Islamabad Capital Territory was complete and 57 security guards had so far been trained.
He was told that following the Karachi operation there had been a significant reduction in crimes and 35,029 criminals had been arrested.Under the revamping of legislation, the Ministry of Law and Justice Division has finalised draft amendments to laws to strengthen the criminal system of justice.
To counter the militancy in Punjab, a de-radicalisation programme has been launched and a pilot project for training and provision of soft loans for 200 youth has been approved.In 16,344 combing operations by the provincial governments from Dec 24 to Feb 8, 12,462 people have been arrested, while 3,265 cases have been registered against the use of loudspeakers, 2,065 arrested, and 1,281 pieces of equipment seized.