65pc seminaries across Punjab registered: CTD

LAHORE: Participants at a consultation on “Giving to the right hands: the means to safe charity” organised by an NGO, demanded the government that seminaries be nationalised and teachers for the subject of Islamiyat be appointed there as heads with proper pay scale.

Speaking at a multi-stakeholder consultation here in Lahore Thursday, spokesperson for Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said 65 percent seminaries were registered across the Punjab; 3,800 religious persons included in the list of Fourth Schedule while 100 cases were registered against the persons who were involved in terrorist financing and 22 out of the 100 were convicted.

The participants discussed the reasons behind the prevalence of extremism in the province and the efforts made at different levels to counter it. Dr Khalid Mahmood discussed how extremism had affected the province and deprived needy people of charity. He said charity is considered the right of seminaries and the needy are deprived of it. Dure Shahwar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) All Pakistan Women Association (APWA), said seminaries must be nationalised and teachers for the subject of Islamiyat be appointed there as head of the seminary with proper pay scale.

Tariq Pervaiz suggested that terrorists financing must be investigated. Public awareness is dire need of the hour so that charity should not be misused. Counter-insurgency is a responsibility of army and it played a great role while the counter-narrative must come from the civilian side and without the public participation terrorism cannot be countered, he added.