ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said that religious seminaries will be allowed to open bank accounts in an effort to guard against illicit funding and ensure transparency of transactions.

Speaking at a press conference after a meeting with religious scholars from the Tanzeem Ittehad-ul-Madaris (TIM) — an umbrella body of five organisations representing the seminaries of the major schools of thought — the minister said that a meeting between TIM representatives and State Bank officials would be arranged to iron out the modalities.

He also said the government would evolve a mechanism to streamline foreign funding to seminaries.

Currently, religious seminaries are barred from opening bank accounts, which means that their funds are deposited into individuals’ accounts.

The meeting was spread over two rounds, with the second one chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and attended by Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sha­rif and Inter Services Intell­igence (ISI) Director General Lt-Gen Rizwan Akhtar.

PM, COAS, top officials meet madressah representatives

Chaudhry Nisar said that TIM represented over 18,000 seminaries which had as many as three million students. The number of other madressahs was marginal, he said, adding that whatever was decided would be applicable to those institutions as well.

He also said that TIM representatives had expressed their readiness to register themselves and have their accounts audited, adding that there was a consensus that the procedure should be simplified.

He said that a committee would be formed to prepare a comprehensive yet simple form so that all necessary details could be obtained in one go. A timeframe of three months had been set for this purpose.

The minister also said that another committee — consisting of representatives of the ministries of education and religious affairs, TIM and the provinces — would be formed to look at the curriculum of these seminaries and other related matters.

Chaudhry Nisar said that the ulema had expressed their concern over raids on religious seminaries. No religious seminaries should or would be raided without substantial evidence, he added.

He told reporters that during the meeting, there was a consensus on adopting a zero tolerance policy against terrorism, adding that all political parties and religious organisations would help expose all individuals and organisations involved in such activities.

The interior minister also disclosed that a new policy to bring national and international NGOs under the ambit of law was ready and would be unveiled in a few days.

He said that a meeting of all four chief ministers had been convened on Thursday to discuss ways to give an impetus to the efforts to implement the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism.

In his remarks during the second round, the prime minis­ter said that NAP was currently the most important agenda of the government. “We are gradually implementing this programme in all 20 areas, which were agreed upon through a national consensus,” he said.

According to a statement released by the PM Secre­tariat, he said consultations with seminary administrations and their representative organisations were necessary for meaningful NAP implementation and the mee­ting was meant to take them into confidence before moving forward.

The PM expressed the hope that the nation would come together to eliminate terrorism. He also said that all stakeholders in the war against terrorism should cooperate with each other and the government, on its part, would extend its full cooperation to the TIM.

Mr Sharif expressed a resolve to pursue NAP separately from politics and in the larger national interest. He said the government understood the importance of mad­ressahs and their positive impact on society and would like them to do better by fulfilling their obligations to society. He said the government was ready to help reform the education system at madressahs.

The religious scholars assured him of their unconditional support for NAP.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2015

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