Following reports that
some madrassas are training militants, the government
has started collecting data about madrassas to check their
source of funding and expenditure, sources told Fact.
The sources said that several militants
trained at madrassas in remote areas were joining jihadi
organisations and had indulged in sectarian and anti-state
violence in Pakistan. The sources said that the Pakistan
government had decided to end the enrolment of foreign
students in Pakistani seminaries. “Now the government
is trying to register seminaries to know more about what
is being taught and where the funds are being spent,”
they said.
The sources said that intelligence agencies
were compiling details about madrassas, students, syllabus
and their funding sources. All these efforts are being
done to prevent money laundering and the flow of undeclared
funds to religious extremists, they added. The intelligence
agencies have compiled data on 182 seminaries in Lahore
so far.
According to a July 2003 report by the
Security Council Committee about Al Qaeda, Taliban and
associated individuals and entities, Pakistani bankers
had estimated illegal money transactions of around $ 3
billion every year, compared with only $1 billion through
the legal banking system in 2003. The sources claimed
that a major chunk of illegal money transactions went
to religious extremists and terrorists.
President General Pervez Musharraf’s
government issued an ordinance on August 18, 2001 to set
up a Pakistan Madrassa Education Board (PMEB). The PMEB’s
mandate was to set up model madrassas and to regulate
and approve the conditions of existing madrassas on the
recommendations of its academic council. The PMEB may
also grant affiliations to existing madrassas in the private
sector. The sources said that only 449 madrassas had applied
for affiliation with the PMEB so far. They said that there
was no confirmation whether a standard curriculum had
been prepared for the affiliated madrassas. They said
the PMEB had distributed questionnaires among madrassas
to obtain voluntary information about their functioning.
The PMEB hasn’t been authorised to force madrassas
to register, the sources said. Religious activists have
rejected madrassa reforms, saying they are part of America’s
agenda. The sources said that some political parties feared
that regulations for madrassa syllabi and funding would
undermine their political independence.
