Foreign aid for Madrassas: Opposition seeks full funding disclosure

Senators stage walkout as state minister fails to satisfy queries

ISLAMABAD:

Opposition members of the Senate reproached the government on Friday for fudging questions about the funding sources of religious seminaries in Punjab and not identifying those institutions that allegedly receive direct assistance from abroad.

The issue has dominated the agenda of the National Action Plan (NAP) which was drawn up earlier this month in a bid to eliminate terrorism. Punjab’s response over foreign funding to seminaries has angered the opposition senators who believe the failure to throttle terror finance is fuelling militancy and extremism.



“We are in a state of war. If our intelligence fails to identify seminaries taking foreign aid, how can it enable us to execute the NAP?” observed PPP Senator Raza Rabbani, who was standing on the floor of the house along with Leader of the Opposition Aitzaz Ahsan.

“We need a simple answer: yes or no. Are seminaries taking foreign aid in Punjab or not?” asked the two senators before the opposition staged a walkout on this issue.

The walkout forced Deputy Chairman Sabir Baloch, who was chairing the session, to suspend the proceedings for 30 minutes after ANP Senator Zahid Khan pointed out the lack of quorum.

“The government is incompetent and the interior minister should have resigned,” remarked Senator Rabbani after the opposition members returned to their seats. This was after Minister of State for Interior Affairs Balighur Rehman had fielded questions about seminaries receiving financial support from abroad or not.



A heated debate was triggered over the Punjab home department’s claim that not a single madrassa in the province received foreign funding. “No news of any madrassa receiving financial and training assistance from Muslim countries has come to our notice during surveillance carried out by field formations,” AIG Police Muhammad Amlish stated.

On this point, PPP Senator Sughra Imam, who has been posing this question since January 8 2014, revealed that the interior ministry had disclosed in May last year that Minhajul Quran and Madrassa Jamiat-ul-Islam Sargodha have been receiving foreign aid. “This reply is duplicitous because it is not based on ground realities,” she observed.

By its own admission, the government said that close to 80 seminaries have received financial support of Rs300 million from the United States, Hong Kong, the Netherland, Australia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran over a 13-month period.

Balighur Rehman informed the senators that the provinces themselves are looking after their law and order affairs since the passage of the 18th amendment. He was still explaining when Senators Sughra Imam, Zahid Khan, Aitzaz Ahsan and Raza Rabbani observed that the government was avoiding the issue of seminaries receiving foreign aid.

“Call a spade a spade,” said Senator Rabbani in an appeal to more than eight cabinet ministers, who failed to convince the opposition. Though Leader of the House Raja Zafarul Haq and Railways Minister Saad Rafique tried to convince the opposition over this issue, Senator Rabbani said, “We are not ready to listen to you.” At this stage, the house once again echoed with slogans like “No, No, Shame, Shame” in response to different answers of the interior ministry.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2015.