Six thousand madrassas unregistered in Punjab: home minister

40 cases referred to military courts for further process

LAHORE: Of the estimated 12,000 madrassas in Punjab, nearly half of them are unregistered, the provincial home minister Colonel (retd) Shuja Khanzada said on Friday.

While addressing a press conference at the Punjab Assembly, Col Khanzada said that over 170 teams were working to document unregistered seminaries, in collaboration between the Counter-Terrorism Department and the Punjab Information Technology Board. The government initiates a registration campaign along with biometric registration of Afghans in the province.

“About 2,000 madrassas were registered in the province over the past few days,” he added.

Out of the 1,400 foreign students present in Punjab, the home minister said visas of 498 students had expired, and their cases will be taken up with the Interior Ministry and the Foreign Office, and that these students may be deported soon.

On biometric registrations, he said that “1, 000 systems will be commissioned in the next few days, and data will be directly transferred to the national database.”

The government is working on bringing changes in the curriculum as well, added Col Khanzada.

40 cases referred to military courts

As many as 40 high profile cases have been referred to military courts by the Punjab government, which are due to become functional within a month’s time.

“Military courts would become operational soon," he said, adding that he expected they will be functional within this month.

Talking about the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP), he said that it will be implemented phase wise, adding that strict action was being taken against unnecessary use of loudspeakers and wall chalking.

“106 cases have been filed for wall chalking with over 70 arrests,” he said.

Responding to a query against unnecessary use of loudspeakers in mosques, he said as per the law only one loudspeaker is allowed to be installed on the outside.

“It is to be used only for Azaan (the call to prayers), important and urgent announcements and khutbah.”

Wall Chalking

The home minister conceded that wall chalking can still be seen at some places in the provinces, but they were working on eliminating it completely.

Arrests and executions

So far, Khanzada said the provincial government had arrested as many as 1,500 people for displaying weapons while 1,400 weapons being ceased.

“143 terrorists and people harbouring terrorist have been arrested under the ATA, while there cases have been referred to the ATCs.

Regarding executions, he said 14 people have been executed. He added that six death row convicts have appealed against their sentence, whereas mercy petitions of four convicts have been sent to the President.