Visas of 286 seminary students in Punjab expire

LAHORE: A total of 286 foreign students, enrolled in seminaries of Punjab, are still getting religious education despite expiry of their visas.

According to sources, more than 300 foreign students are getting education in Punjab out of whom visas of 286 students have expired. The Home Department, Punjab, confirmed that the department had written to the Federal Ministry of Interior for action in this regard.

The sources said these students belonged to 26 countries including China, Chad, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Algeria, Uganda, Senegal, Liberia, Myanmar, etc. As many as 20 students are residing in Rawalpindi of whom 12 belong to Thailand, two to Malaysia, two to China, one to Kazakhstan and one to Philippines. Nine students have been living in Gujranwala and visas of five of them have expired. The visas of all foreign students studying at the seminaries of District Attock have expired.

The sources said the visas of 70 student of Thailand, 55 students of Philippines, 31 students of Indonesia, 20 students of Malaysia, 20 students of Sudan, 20 students of China, 14 students of Kazakhstan, 14 students of Chad and 11 students of Algeria have expired. The Special Branch of Punjab Police has directed the seminaries to send documents of these students to the Ministry of Interior for extending their visas.

Officials said once the visas of the students are expired, the administration of seminaries requests the Interior Ministry for visas extension.

When this scribe contacted Lala Rukh, spokesperson to Federal Ministry of Interior, she refused to comment and said it was not her domain. Then this scribe contacted the Chairperson for Standing Committee of Interior Ministry, Raja Khurram Shahzad, who said he had to discuss this issue with the Standing Committee. When asked whether these students would face deportation, he said he would take up this issue with the Interior secretary today (Wednesday).

If the visas of foreign students are expired, the administration of the seminary concerned requests for visa extension. Such seminaries remain in contact with the Federal Ministry of Interior and send required documents, said Qari Hanif Jalandhari, general secretary of the Wafaqul Madaris Al-Arabia Pakistan.