PESHAWAR, Aug 8: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has called upon the federal government to withdraw its decision about expelling foreign students from the country’s seminaries.

“The federal government’s decision will lead Pakistan towards isolation,” Mr Durrani told reporters on Monday after attending a two-day workshop on the provincial agriculture policy.

The chief minister said the decision was arbitrary and unfair as the foreign students enrolled in the seminaries had valid documents.

“There is no valid reason to expel foreigners from seminaries,” he said. Mr Durrani said the move was unprecedented as there was no prior example of a ban on foreign students’ admission in religious institutions.

He cited the example of Saudi Arabia and some other Muslim countries where hundreds of thousands of students were studying in religious institutions.

In fact, he said, Saudi Arabia’s Madinah University had a campus in the US state of Virginia but the US government had not taken any action against that campus.

According to him, the federal government’s decision would not help check terrorism but would instead isolate the country in the international community. This is why the centre should review its decision, he said.

Mr Durrani said the federal government had not bothered to contact the provincial government before ordering the expulsion of foreigners from seminaries.

Asked to comment on President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s statement that the construction of big reservoirs was essential, Mr Durrani said the NWFP government had always supported the construction of Bhasha Dam in the Northern Areas.

In reply to another question, the chief minister said that he had directed the provincial law department to remove ambiguities from the Hasba bill. According to him, the provincial government has not yet decided to file a review petition in the Supreme Court.

Earlier, Mr Durrani instructed the provincial agriculture department to operationalise in all 24 districts of the province farm service centres where growers would be provided facilities under one roof.

Under the new agriculture policy, the chief minister said, the government would set up an endorsement fund in each district and would allocate Rs1 million for each. The government would release loans to small farmers from the fund, he said.

Mr Durrani said the government had also decided to amend agriculture laws and would soon forward the same to the federal government. He called upon the concerned officials to implement the agriculture policy and facilitate the farming community.