DCs told to act against illegally built seminaries

Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal on Monday asked the city's district commissioners to identify seminaries built on illegally occupied government or private land and initiate action against their managements.

The order was announced during a meeting presided over by Siyal held to discuss implementation of the apex committee's recommendations. The meeting was attended by provincial home secretary Qazi Shahid Pervaiz, additional inspector generals (AIGs) of Karachi police, officials of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and Special Branch, DIGs of all ranges and all divisional commissioners.

The home minister ordered to register all seminaries and update the list. He further directed the divisional commissioners to ensure the process of registering the seminaries was in accordance with the decisions highlighted in the Sindh Apex Committee’s meetings.

The home minister ordered the commissioners to also take local police and law enforcement agencies on board so as to deal with any hindrance they face while registering the seminaries. Calling for the process to be sped up, the home minister told the divisional commissioners that no seminary should allowed to be constructed until an NOC and all other legal formalities are completed.

Siyal also directed the officials concerned to gear up the arms licenses verification process, while also calling for verifying the fourth schedule list.