182 Madaris closed under NAP

ISLAMABAD: The government has closed 182 Madaris in the country on suspicion under the National Action Plan while it has been revealed that some 190 Madaris are being foreign funded.

The interior minister, on a question about the progress under NAP, has told the parliament in black and white that 167 Madaris have been shut down in Sindh, 13 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Punjab. These Madaris were placed in the “suspect” category.

Moreover, it has been revealed that 147 Madaris in Punjab are getting foreign funding while six Madaris in Sindh, seven in KP and thirty in Balochistan are also foreign funded. Hence, in total, 190 Madaris are foreign funded, the Interior Ministry’s documents state.

The Interior Ministry has termed the progress on Madaris regulation as satisfactory and has stated that uniform registration and data forms have been developed by Nacta and Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat-e-Madaris Pakistan (ITMP) and input by provinces and intelligence agencies have been incorporated and the plan is ready for implementation.

Moreover, the documents say that the Islamabad Capital Territory and Punjab have completed 100 percent mapping of Madaris on agreed parameters while Sindh has mapped 80 percent of its madaris; KP seventy-five percent and Balochistan has mapped sixty percent of its madaris and the exercise is going on.

The parliament has been told that the ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (FE&PT) has constituted two committees under Federal Board and Higher Education Commission. Meetings have been held and finalization of decisions is underway in consultation with ITMP.

It is worth mentioning here that after the 16 December 2014 Peshawar Army Public School massacre, the Nacta report had reported that there were at least 22052 registered Madaris in Pakistan as per record of the Interior Ministry while there is was a little record of the unregistered seminaries in the country which also run into thousands. In the federal capital alone there were at least 187 registered Madaris as per record while reportedly there were at least 446 unregistered Madaris built on the green belts of the capital having around 22000 students. According to the Interior Ministry data, till January 2015, Punjab had 14954 registered Madaris; Sindh had 4264; there were 1400 registered religious seminaries in KP and around 1247 registered Madaris in Baluchistan.