[DAWN] Three months after the unveiling of the National Action Plan (NAP) and more than two months after Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan's disclosure that perhaps 10 per cent of all madressahs were involved in terrorism, it appears that no government agency is ready to own the drive to identify these seminaries.While the relevant officials in National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) and the interior ministry declined to comment on the issue officially, a senior Nacta official told Dawn off the record that the Ministry of Religious Affairs was the lead coordination agency for this effort.
Similarly, an official from the interior ministry, who too was only willing to comment on condition of anonymity, said that the interior secretary had asked the religious affairs secretary to coordinate with seminaries over three matters.
"These three matters are source of financing and especially foreign funding, madressah registration and monitoring," he added.
Whether or not the government is willing to acknowledge this officially, it cannot be denied that on the face of it, the only government department which has been involved in negotiating with the seminaries publicly is the religious affairs department.
Just a religious matter?
Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousuf said that his ministry was focused on reforming the religious sector, streamlining madressah registration and facilitating the seminaries.
Officially, there is no news of the interior ministry or any of its departments having met representatives from the madressahs.
This means that government efforts vis-à-vis the seminaries are no different from past measures.
"We have held the meeting of the Madressah Education Board after 11 years and there is a proposal to establish an Islamic Education Commission on the lines of the HEC," the minister said, adding, "These steps will correct the flaws in madressahs."
Though the minister refused to explain what exactly he meant by "flaws", he was adamant that the Ministry of Religious Affairs had nothing to do with terrorism or checking foreign funding to seminaries.
In his media statement on December 21, 2014 the interior minister had said, "Some 90 per cent of madressahs have no connection to terrorism -- based on intelligence reports."
By saying so, he implied that at least 10 per cent did have such links, which is the reason madressah reform was a major objective in the 20-point NAP.
A month later, on January 18, 2015, he reiterated, "The religious institutions are requested to cooperate with the government to identify potential terrorists."