PESHAWAR, Sept 19: About 192 seminaries have been registered in the Federally-Administered Tribal Area despite the fact that jurisdiction of the registration law has not been extended to Fata.

Officials said that the Societies Act, 1860, under which NGOs and seminaries are registered in other parts of the country, have yet to be extended to Fata and the administration there have been registering seminaries without any legal backing.

In settled areas of the country, Labour and Industry Departments registers seminaries and NGOs under the Societies Act, 1860.

The government recently amended the act according to which management of the seminaries would conduct their annual audit of its accounts and submit it to the registrar.

An official said that in the absence of relevant laws, the NWFP governor had empowered the directorate of education (Fata) through an administrative order to register seminaries in seven agencies and six Frontier Regions (FRs).

Data compiled by different agencies revealed that the tribal areas roughly had 300 seminaries of which 192 had been registered since the governor issued the order in the year 2004. The directorate had received 222 applications.

The directorate officials said that around 58,256 male and female students had been enrolled in the registered seminaries while the process was underway to regularize more institutions.

Former secretary Fata (security) Brig (retd) Mahmood Shah said that the Governor Secretariat (Fata) had evolved a policy to find out the number of seminaries, students, source of income and bound them to conduct annual audit.

Mr Shah said that it was also suggested that the management of the seminaries would provide admission to those foreign students who possessed visas.

He said that in the Shakai valley of the South Waziristan Agency about 200 foreign students were enrolled in seminaries and the administration was tasked to register the foreigners. “These foreigners disappeared before registration,” he said.

The officials said that nine seminaries had been found in Kurram Agency, 25 in Khyber, 74 in North Waziristan, 72 in South Waziristan, six in Orakzai, six in Bajaur and 14 in Mohmand Agency.

They said that English, Pakistan Study, General Science and Mathematics had also been introduced in the registered seminaries in Fata.

The government has allocated an amount of Rs58.161 million for strengthening seminaries in the Fata in the annual development programme for the year 2005-06. The directorate has provided teachers and other assistance to 52 registered seminaries.