Pervaiz Rasheed madrassa faux pas: Khawaja Asif attempts damage control

E-Paper | March 14, 2026

ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif defended Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed’s earlier statements calling religious seminaries "centres of ignorance and illiteracy" in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

He said Rasheed had referred only to a few seminaries against whom there is evidence of involvement in terrorism.

The defence minister asserted that out of the approximately more than 20,000 seminaries in Pakistan, only about three to four per cent assist miscreants or directly facilitate terrorism.

He went on to say that putting up banners or announcing fatwas against Rasheed is not a service to Islam.

He added that the information minister had already apologised and offered a clarification on his remarks in Senate, so the matter should be let go.

Pervaiz Rasheed faced heavy criticism from religious elements, mainly belonging to the Deobandi school of thought, following an address to a conference in Karachi on May 3 where, speaking about madrassas, he said "These universities of ignorance, to whom we give donations and hides, are giving an ideology of hatred and conservativeness to the society.”

Seminaries have come under greater surveillance following the December 2014 attacks on Peshawar's Army Public School.

Reports released by the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provincial governments investigating seminaries revealed 147 foreign-funded seminaries in Punjab, and 145 'highly-sensitive' seminaries in KP.

— An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Federal Defence Minister Khawaja Asif issued the statement outside the National Assembly and was flanked by JI chief Sirajul Haq. The error is regretted.

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I'm always right

May 19, 2015 01:44pm

Well done Khawaja Asif. First time for me saying this!

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Abdul Basit

May 19, 2015 01:45pm

Religious seminaries need registration and transparency of their accounts.

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Zak

May 19, 2015 01:57pm

Very unfortunate and uncalled for statement from Rasheed , he is totally out of line .

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Sarfraz

May 19, 2015 02:09pm

Why malign all seminaries when there may be few who have different agenda? Why make such sweeping statements from responsible people in the government?

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Stargazer

May 19, 2015 02:28pm

Truth is often Bitter. Everyone knows what Parvez Rashid and Khwaja Asif are saying is correct, and in the current atmosphere of the country it takes guts to say the truth.

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Juliana Fitzwater

May 19, 2015 02:34pm

Its Pervaiz Rasheed's right to say what he thinks is right. Disappointing to see the Government trying to push the issue under the carpet rather then taking it head-on. Seminaries have been a problem and we all know that. Head-in-the-sand approach has lead to where we are right now over the years and if we continue to follow this we might (God forbid) end up becoming one of the Yemens, Somalias and Egypts of this world.

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NHM

May 19, 2015 03:22pm

Perhaps the only sensible statement ever uttered by Pervaiz Rasheed puts him in defiance with his own party. Such is the immense power of "ignorance and illiteracy" in the country

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M Rafique

May 19, 2015 03:33pm

The minister of sitting govt is saying, few seminaries against whom there is evidence of involvement in terrorism, Sir who take the action ????

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Shafiq

May 19, 2015 03:38pm

@Sarfraz Sir if three or four per cent of these are preaching hate, my maths. tells me that there are four to six thousands such establishments ,which are teaching the programme of the destruction of Pakistan. You call this "a few". For god's sake wake up? What is wrong with checking the qualifications of teachers and the credentials of the financial contribution?

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Zabardast

May 19, 2015 04:27pm

Convert them to 'Normal Schools' and if there is any resistance, just outright BAN them.

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Atif

May 19, 2015 04:29pm

Pervaiz Rasheed has only said what most people believe. There is a role of these seminaries but this role should be regulated. They house the poor and downtrodden and provide imams for mosques, admitted! but, they can't be allowed to teach whatever they wish is correct. At the very least, they should be taught to respect that a point of view different to theirs exists, and they can disagree, but they should moderate their statements on differing sects.

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Zibbi

May 19, 2015 04:38pm

@shafiq your maths is a shocker! 3-4 % of 20000 is 600-800 rather than 6000-8000. Its good that khwaja asif issued clarification on behalf of disinformation minister

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Sarmad

May 19, 2015 04:56pm

NS government need to shrug off apologetic mind set if they wish to rescue Pakistan.

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Imran

May 19, 2015 05:06pm

The Information Minister could have given the same kind of statement but he didn't and that meant not a few but all. Such people may be disqualified by the executive or judiciary because they do not have required knowledge let alone sufficient. Information Minister was right if he had said that there are elements in the religious seminaries who are not qualified and illiterate instead of labelling seminaries (which are mere forums) as universities of ignorance.

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Arshad

May 19, 2015 05:29pm

As usual Govt gets scared of these people.

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raza

May 19, 2015 05:58pm

Every one could make out it was ASWJ just adding a small new name can only fool our Govt not the people and yet the Govt has shown its helpnessless in dealing with them how then we can get rid of terrorists with in our slves

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Saleem Aziz

May 19, 2015 05:59pm

@Zibbi even 600-800 is too many

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ailly

May 19, 2015 06:11pm

water is crossing over the bridge... too late the hero.

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Hassan Parvez

May 19, 2015 06:45pm

At least one good deed by the defence minister. In my opinion Madrasas are the main reason of terrorism in Pakistan. When the interior minister says that only very few Madrasas are involved in terrorism activities, has he done a study of all madrasas, has he investigated them to find out which one are involved? has he conducted a study of these religious seminaries, if so where is the report. Can he publish it. Parvez Rasheed is 100% right.

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Naved

May 19, 2015 06:48pm

As per Khawaja Asif figure, 3% to 4% or 600 to 800 seminaries are directly involved in the terrorism activities. When two senior ministers are pointing out the problem then why there is no action against these seminaries. Who is protecting these them or why Govt. is afraid of taking serious action against them?? Surely, the seminaries spreading hate against other religions and sects are much more than the above figure quoted by Khawaja Asif. Action, please take action against the problematic seminaries or be ready for more terrorism in Pakistan for an indefinite period.

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Shahid

May 19, 2015 06:54pm

Hypocrates. Did Parvez Rasheed say anything wrong? These Madrassahs are centers of illiteracy and ignorance indeed. Yes sure many of these are not aiding terrorism directly, but what ever humans they are producing iare inclined to go fundamentalistic ways. We need a major reforms of these Madrassahs where the students should get technical education too. At least they should become electritions, plumbers etc.

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Taimur

May 19, 2015 06:57pm

Has he committed blasphemy? Why are they giving explanations?

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Shahid

May 19, 2015 06:58pm

@Zibbi, nothing wrong with Shafiq's math, he just is a futurist who can foresee what 2-3% of the total number at that time will be. The way the total number of these seminaries is increasing, it will grow in 10 fold in next 20 years.

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ishrat salim

May 19, 2015 07:07pm

So Mr Khawaja, what is the govt doing against those few seminaries involved in terrorism ? why have they not yet been sealed & people arrested. Does it not go against NAP ? you the civilian govt knowingly not arresting those already exposed seminaries involved in terror activity, why ? can some one answer this please?

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Rizwan Khan

May 19, 2015 07:24pm

Information minister was 100% right, if some people have problem for digesting this information, then it is their problem. If we want to make progress, then we have to turn towards the real ideology of Pakistan and move away from this religious-phobia. We need tolerance, respect, and justice from national to person level.

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Parvez

May 19, 2015 07:55pm

4% means 400 madrassas and that's a lot .......Pervaiz Rashid is spot on correct and n what he said.

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May 19, 2015 08:26pm

Sorry to say that the illegal democrats are afraid from the women power.

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May 19, 2015 08:33pm

I think most of the people will agree that saying 3 to 4% of madressas are involved in hate-mongering and sponsoring of terrorism, is a understatement of great proportion. The true numbers are closer to 10 to 15 times of these numbers. COAS and Corps Commanders have said a few weeks back that though Army is doing its utmost, there is no real action and support from the civilian side, and that says all.

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ladies and gentlemen

May 19, 2015 08:44pm

@I This time you wrong as always.

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ladies and gentlemen

May 19, 2015 08:50pm

Pervaiz Rasheed was right to begin with. The religious seminaries are the main cause of troubles related to extremism, sectarianism, lack of progress in thinking logically and people becoming zombies when critical thinking is required. They are sending this generation back to the 6th century. Khwaja Asif is always on the wrong side of the issues.

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Salman

May 19, 2015 09:11pm

Prevaiz Rasheed should not have been given death threats, regardless of him saying all or some. If a madressa is not involved in terrorism, let them deny it....but no need to threaten the info minister. But does no else see the irony that the water and defense minister has to correct the "information" minister? If the information minister cannot effectively communicate his own thoughts, how is meant to effectively communicate statements of others? LOL I guess that what happens when you use "pmln merit" to select people for jobs....

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EmQ

May 19, 2015 09:16pm

Parvez Rasheed didn't say anything wrong or anything unknown to anyone!

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May 19, 2015 11:03pm

I agree with Pervaiz Rasheed for the first time. Religion should be understood not memorized.

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ilyas

May 19, 2015 11:10pm

Pervez Rashid is used to bowling bouncers to Imran Khan. May be thought he is facing IK as usual.

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From USA, S.A.Hyder, Ph.D.

May 20, 2015 12:11am

The Information Minister is right, for once, Mr. Defense Minister ! However, even if 1% of the seminaries is spreading terrorism, it is still worthwhile to control all.

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MJK

May 20, 2015 02:20am

Hundreds probably thousands of seminaries , is a reflection on our successive governments which failed to provide good education to the children of ordinary citizens. Seminaries can't provide modern education, they emphasize religious education , unfortunately most of it drives these kids to extremism, sectarian divide.

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Muhammad Arshad

May 20, 2015 06:51am

@Shafiq My dear your point is right but your math is not! Three to four percent of 20,000 is 600 to 800, still enough to cause havoc.

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Zac

May 20, 2015 08:57am

why faux pas?it's Pervaiz Rasheed's right to express his thoughts and I agree with him. Madrassas are at center of promoting extremism. it's about time we acknowledge the problem and do something about it.

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