February 24, 2006	Friday	Muharram 25, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Feb 23: The federal government has directed the four provinces to complete the registration of seminaries by the end of March, sources said. The ministry of religious affairs has issued fresh directives to the directorate of labour and industries in the four provinces and asked it to speed up the registration process giving it a month to complete the task.

Under the Societies Registration Act of 1860, the labour and industry departments register seminaries in the provinces.

An official told Dawn in Peshawar that in the NWFP the directorate had so far registered a total of 2,301 seminaries. Of these, he said, 1,900 seminaries were registered before the Societies Act was amended and another 409 seminaries were registered after the move.

He said that although the directorate had not yet received the exact number of unregistered seminaries in the province, it expects more 250 seminaries to be registered.

“We are confident that we will be able to complete the registration in the NWFP by the end of March,” he said.

Sources said that following the religious ministry’s directives the directorate had asked the executive district officers (education) to provide details of unregistered seminaries.

They said the concerned EDOs had also been directed to set up a focal point at the district level to coordinate with the Tanzeemul Maddaris to streamline the affairs of seminaries in future.