Recipient of foreign funds: Tough hunt for Punjab to identify madrassas

Unregistered seminaries unwilling to register or reveal their funding sources

ISLAMABAD:

Civilian forces and intelligence agencies engaged in enrolling over 6,550 unregistered madrassas in Punjab are facing stiff resistance from hundreds of clerics who have refused to reveal their sources of funding.

A senior officer, who is also a member of the committee overseeing the implementation of National Action Plan against terrorism in Punjab, says that the actual resistance is from politicians who don’t want to lose their vote bank by exposing the clerics receiving funds from abroad.

“Unregistered Islamic seminaries are unwilling to register under the new form issued by the interior ministry, as they are bound to reveal their source of funding,” the official told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity.

These madrassas are located in Jhang, Chiniot, Attock, Gujranwala, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Khushab, Rajanpur, Layyah, Dera Ghazi Khan and other districts of the province, he added. “Our initial surveillance suggested that in Punjab, more than 170 madrassas are directly funded by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.”



Home Minister Punjab Col (retd) Shuja Khanzada admitted that madrassas were receiving funds from abroad. “Yes, there are some seminaries in Punjab are funded by brotherly Muslim countries. Identifying all such madrassa looks like a test case for us,” he told The Express Tribune.

Khanzada’s confirmation came a week after the Punjab police informed the Senate that no madrassa in the province was receiving funds from abroad.

The provincial government does not want any confrontation with representatives of around 14,768 registered madrasas, said the home minister, adding that the process of registering 6,550 unregistered seminaries would go ahead without any hurdle.

“We have also arrested over 350 foreigners, including Afghans, mostly studying in madrasas,” he said. During surveillance over 10,000 illegal weapons were recovered from over 9,000 suspected militants, who were also booked by the law-enforcement agencies under the NAP, he added.

PML-N lawmaker Sheikh Akram said the clerics representing banned outfits were the major beneficiary of foreign funding. “It is an open secret that Punjab’s seminaries remain the major beneficiary of foreign funding,” said Akram, who hails from Jhang district.

However, Jamia Farooqia’s Khateeb Alam Tariq – who is also brother of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan’s slain chief Azam Tariq – told The Express Tribune that the government has arrested over 100 of their active members without any evidence. “Only Pakistani diaspora in other countries donate to our seminaries. No foreign state is funding our madrassas,” he claimed.

Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) Chairman Tahir Ashrafi said the council was cooperating with the government to resolve all the issues. “If the government brings any proof of foreign funding against our 73,000 mosques registered with the Wafaq-ul-Masajid Pakistan and over 13, 000 seminaries registered with the Tahfiz-ur-Madaris Dinia, we will not stop them from taking action against them.


Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2015.