AFTER weeks of commentary in the media about Saudi Arabia’s role in financing an extremist mindset in Pakistan, a clarification has finally emerged.

The kingdom’s embassy in Pakistan says all cases of financial assistance being given to seminaries, mosques and charity organisations are vetted by the Foreign Office before any funding is approved.

While the correct procedure seems to have been followed by the Saudi Arabian government, it is sad that the Foreign Office itself has nothing to say on the matter.

Also read: Foreign funding to be scrutinised without discrimination: FO

How many such requests for vetting have been sent to it? How much money has flowed in and to whom thus far? And do other countries sending funds for seminaries, mosques and charities also follow the same procedure of first getting the intended beneficiary vetted by the Foreign Office?

These questions become all the more important since they are left hanging in the air after a protracted controversy in the media and in the National Assembly.

The money coming in from formal sources has hardly been the issue, and the real challenge has been funds from secret channels. These have been used to promote extremism in the country. The matter of foreign funding of the ‘extremist mindset’ in Pakistan was raised in the debates on the 21st Amendment and on other occasions.

The government even received advice from the home ministries of the four provinces on the subject.

Following the report from the provincial governments, the federal interior minister went to the length of telling the nation that funding for seminaries, mosques and charities was now a provincial subject and it was up to the provincial law-enforcement authorities to follow up on it.

According to him, only 10pc of the total number of madressahs in the countries promote extremism — a figure that translates into hundreds of possibly radicalised seminaries, with independent reports suggesting the number is even higher.

The government has chosen not to reveal much about the matter, or washed its hands of it. Unfortunately, the clarification from the kingdom raises more questions than it answers.

Saudi Arabia and a number of other Muslim countries from where funds flow to seminaries in Pakistan should clarify how private donations are handled by them.

On its part, the federal government should provide answers to how it has been vetting the beneficiaries of funds coming from these secret channels. The matter is important, and deserves far more serious handling.

Published in Dawn February 11th , 2015

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