November 10, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 14, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: The government has decided to allocate Rs3 billion annually to provide monetary assistance to all the registered seminaries in the country, a source in the interior ministry told Dawn on Sunday.

The source said the financial assistance would be offered to religious Madressahs after the promulgation of a new law to monitor and regulate all the registered religious schools.

The source said the education and religious affairs ministries had sent a summary regarding a uniform syllabus and monitoring of Madressahs to the interior ministry for vetting.

The interior ministry, he said, had in turn sent it to the federal cabinet for final approval.

According to a study, about 900 Madressahs are being run by different religious sects in the country. “About 240 religious schools exist only in Islamabad,” the source said.

The interior ministry had decided to conduct a fresh survey to get all the Madressahs registered. However, some of the religious schools had opposed the ministry’s move.

According to a rough estimate of the interior ministry, of the 900 Madressahs, only 300 would be registered with the ministry while the rest would be declared unauthorized, the source said.

The interior ministry had estimated that Rs10 million would be provided to each registered Madressah annually to meet its expenditure.

The source said that a uniform education syllabus would be implemented in all the registered Madressahs. Besides religious education, other subjects like science and mathematics would also be taught there.