ISLAMABAD, Dec 31: Some 65 per cent of the foreign students studying in various seminaries of the country have returned to their homelands voluntarily.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told Dawn while speaking about the issue of ‘forced’ return of seminary students.

Mr Sherpao denied that the government had fixed Dec 31 as deadline for their return.

He said there was no resistance against the return of those foreign students who had been asked to leave the country under a government policy.

The interior minister challenged the statement of the NWFP chief minister that his government would not expel foreign students from the province and asked, that how could anyone stay back unless his ministry issued a visa.

He, however, made it clear that his ministry had already issued instructions about the government policy on foreign seminary students to the provincial governments and it would keep a check on is implementation.

Meanwhile, the Ittehad Tanzeemat-i-Madaris Deeniah (ITMD), a conglomeration of five major religious institutions, has demanded that the government should withdraw its decision of expelling foreign students from seminaries.

Speaking at a news conference here, Qazi Abdul Rashid, deputy secretary of Wafaqul Madaris Arabia Pakistan, a member of ITMD, said that if the government did not withdraw the decision of disallowing foreign students in the country’s seminaries, a countrywide campaign would be launched against it.

He said a convention of the ITMD had been scheduled for Sunday, in which ulema from all over the country would participate. Besides others, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Raja Zafarul Haq have been invited to discuss and draw a unified strategy on the issue.

The ITMD leader asked the Supreme Court to take a quick action against the government for violation of fundamental human rights by disallowing continuation of studies to the foreign students.

Meanwhile, Secretary Religious Affairs Vakil Ahmed Khan, when contacted, said his department was not concerned with the foreign religious students nor he had any knowledge about their status.

He said the ITMD had sought some more time to complete their registration under the newly enforced registration law and as many as 2,400 of over 6000 seminaries had been registered after August.