ISLAMABAD: Couched in diplomatically-reserved language, the Foreign Office told Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that money being sent from the kingdom to Pakistan through informal channels would face scrutiny.

“Funding by private individuals and organisations to private entities through informal channels… is being brought under tighter scrutiny in the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism, to choke off any possibility of financing for terrorists and terrorist organisations,” read a Foreign Office rejoinder to a Saudi embassy statement claiming that the FO had, in the past, cleared its financing of mosques, seminaries and charity organisations.

Though the FO was responding to a Saudi embassy statement, it attempted to avoid offending the Saudis by noting that donations coming through informal channels would be examined “regardless of the source and country”.

Senators summon Punjab IGP to explain ‘unbelievable’ figures on foreign-funded seminaries

Saudi Arabia has been named in a number of government reports submitted in parliament as the leading financier of mosques and seminaries in Pakistan.

The interior ministry, in reply to a question before the Senate in April 2014, had said that Saudi Arabia and four other Islamic countries — Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait — had provided Rs258 million to 15 seminaries in one year.

More lately, Saudi Arabia was again named in a statement by Minister of State for Interior Baleeghur Rehman in a statement in the Senate last month, when he said: “Middle Eastern countries namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iran and the United Arab Emirates were giving aid to religious seminaries in three of the provinces.”

But, this is all money that has been coming through formal banking channels. The volume of funds flowing in through informal channels, most of which are illegal, is much larger and largely undocumented.

A closer reading of the rejoinder revealed that the Saudi embassy’s claim that it had obtained clearance for its funding from the FO was also quietly rebutted.

“Offers of economic assistance and project-based assistance by Saudi Arabia are processed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in consultation with the relevant departments and agencies of the government of Pakistan,” the Foreign Office said without mentioning the funds provided to mosques, seminaries and charities by KSA — an issue that embassy statement had originally sought to clarify.

The Saudi Embassy had said in its statement on Monday that: “In fact, whenever any seminary, mosque or charity organisation requests the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for financial assistance, the embassy refers the matter to the government of Pakistan through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

The embassy had said money was disbursed only after the FO certification that the funds “served the interest of public welfare”.

Unbelievable numbers

Separately on Tuesday, a Senate committee ordered Punjab Inspector General Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera to appear before it on Feb 16 with complete data and a list of religious seminaries in the province that were receiving foreign funds.

The directives were issued by the Senate Standing Committee on Rules and Privileges, which also declared the IGP “guilty of breaching the privilege of the parliament” by providing incorrect information to the Senate in response to a question on the subject.

The committee, headed by the MQM’s Tahir Mashahdi and consisting of a number of political heavyweights, also expressed annoyance over the IGP’s absence from the committee’s meeting and were not happy that he sent the Rawalpindi regional police officer (RPO) in his stead.

The committee members expressed surprise when RPO Akhtar Laleka said police did not have any “clear proof” about foreign funding to religious seminaries in the province.

The police official invoked the ire of senators when he said that police were making efforts to check foreign funding to madressahs with the help of intelligence agencies.

Senator Mashahdi said the RPO’s response showed that the police had not taken any action against madressahs receiving foreign funding, despite the fact that Punjab was considered the hub of sectarian violence in the country since 1979.

The IGP had been summoned by the committee in response to a privilege motion moved by PPP’s Sughra Imam. She had moved the motion, stating that she had received contradictory replies to her questions regarding foreign funding to madressahs in Punjab. The IGP had given a “Nil” reply, when asked whether any madressah in Punjab was receiving foreign funds.

Opposition Leader in the Senate and PPP stalwart Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan referred to the recent Saudi embassy statement and said it was claimed that whenever the Saudi government received any request for funding from a seminary, mosque or charity organisation, the embassy referred the matter to the government.

This showed that the government knew about the institutions which were receiving funds from Saudi Arabia, he said, adding that this statement was sufficient to prove that the Senate had been given wrong information.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2015

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