KARACHI: Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has said the provincial government will address the reservations expressed by the Ministry of Interior over Sindh’s request to ban 94 seminaries under the anti-terrorism law.

“We’ll remove the reservations expressed by the MoI by giving complete information regarding the seminaries to recommend the federal government to enlist them in the first schedule,” said Mr Shah while speaking to reporters during his visit to the rain-hit parts of the city on Saturday.

Mr Shah was commenting on the media reports that the MoI had rejected the Sindh government request for imposing a ban on 94 religious seminaries in Sindh as well as in other provinces and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) on the grounds of incomplete information and insufficient evidence against those madressahs.

However, he added, his office had not yet received the reply of the MoI. “The reply has not yet reached me. Let the reply lands my office, we would address all the reservations raised by the federal government,” he said, adding that his government’s recommendations were made on the basis of the reports of intelligence agencies.

In reply to a letter of the Sindh government, the interior ministry said action could not be taken against the seminaries due to ‘lack of information and evidence’ against them. Besides, it was said, a number of those seminaries did not fall in of the jurisdiction of Sindh.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2017