ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Punjab government had started geo-fencing of all seminaries under the National Action Plan (NAP) through obtaining their location, students’ profile, CNIC numbers, revenue details and source of income.
Talking to a private news channel, official of Punjab IT Board, Umar Saif has said that the government has pinpointed those seminaries considered security threat.
He said there were total of 13,800 seminaries out of which 50-70 were declared as sensitive on the basis of having links with terrorists in one or another way. They had enrolled approximately one million students in these seminaries, he added.
To a question, he said that Punjab government has improved surveillance system manifold during last two years and the government was also ensuring biometric verification of some 250,000 Afghan nationals in the province.
Umar Saif said the registration of the seminaries has been completed in the province.
Taking part in the programme, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Arif Alvi also said that geo-fencing of religious schools was a positive step of the government and PTI supports it.
He said all institutions working on seminaries’ registration should have effective coordination and work under one roof. It should also be known whether the government has registered all religious schools besides monitoring their internal activities and syllabus, he added.
Pakistan Peoples Party leader Moula Bakhsh Chandio also said that the Sindh government has almost completed seminaries’ registration and geo-fencing of schools in the province.
