Pak govt reaches consensus on registration of seminaries

The Pakistan government has reached a consensus with the clerics for the registration of thousands of religious seminaries in the country, a top minister said Thursday.

Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood told the media here that Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and the security institutions played an important role in reaching the consensus.

He said the Tanzeemat-e-Madaris, which is representative body of thousands of madrasahs, agreed for the registration of the religious seminaries.

"The un-registered seminaries would not be allowed to function. Similarly, registration of those madaris would be cancelled which fail to comply with conditions of registration," he said.

He said the government will not interfere in the internal matters of the seminaries, but they will be brought in the mainstream through a process of registration.

Mehmood said the Ministry of Education and Federal Board of Secondary Education will help the seminaries in various areas.

He said the seminaries will teach contemporary subjects of the relevant boards and the examination of these subjects will be conducted by the Federal Board of Secondary Education.

There are nearly 30,000 religious schools in Pakistan and their registration and mainstreaming had been a big challenge.

So far, the powerful clerics had resisted registration with the Ministry of Education as they were reluctant to share the information of the funding.