US officials visit religious school in Lahore: Discussion held with management
By Asif Shahazad
LAHORE, Sept 16: Officials from the US State Department on Thursday visited a religious school in the city as part of a fresh campaign to study the seminary system in Pakistan.
"It is a good experience visiting this school," Bureau of South Asian Affairs Deputy Assistant-Secretary Torker L. Patterson told reporters at the Jamia Al-Manzoor in Cantonment.
"It is a good chance for us to learn about the madressah system. We had a good exchange of views with the administration," the US official said about the visit after meeting Pir Saifullah Khalid, the head of the school, and other administrators. The seminary belongs to the Sunni sect.
Its spokesman Asad Farooq said the visiting team intimated the seminary administration on Wednesday night when it asked for a visit to meet students. The team arrived at the seminary at 3:30pm. Apparently Americans, two foreigners, and a local security man remained outside and the other members of the team proceeded inside.
The US state department representative had with him two more of his colleagues, identified by an intelligence source as Ms Petersia and Mr Brian, and a local translator, Zahir Shah.
The US officials asked the seminary administration to send media men outside the room after which the meeting continued for about one and-a-half hour. Later, the team met students and posed them various questions about their syllabus, learning, teachers and background. They also visited the library, class rooms, kitchens and godowns of the school.
"Anybody who comes to us with a message of peace is welcomed," the head of the seminary told Dawn on phone. He added that the US officials had contacted him and requested for the visit.
He said he asked the American officials about the US foreign policies, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I asked them about the 100,000 children, who died in Iraq in absence of medicines and food during the allied forces' strikes."
He quoted Mr Patterson, a department official, as saying that the US president had the responsibility of protecting the country and its people. "We have people from all religions and countries in America, which is not a Christian country. We are trying to understand all religions," Mr Khalid quoted his reply.
"We are peaceful Pakistani citizens. We let the team see each and every thing at the school because we have nothing to conceal. We have been teaching students without discrimination of cast and creed from all over the country since 1986. Right now we have over 1,000 students with us," the seminary head said.
An intelligence source said the visit was a part of the US latest campaign to study the seminary system in Pakistan, as one such team visited a religious school in Sargodha on Tuesday. More such visits were on the card, he believed.
According to a source in the Punjab government, there are 6,761 seminaries in Pakistan. Of those, some 3,153 are situated in the Punjab, 1,281 in the NWFP, 905 in Sindh, 692 in Balochistan, 151 in Azad Kashmir, 185 in the Northern Areas and 194 in Islamabad.
