PESHAWAR, Sept 22: The process of registration of madressahs has been started in the NWFP and 66 new institutions have been registered. This had taken the number of registered madressahs in the province to 1,969 so far, said Riffat Pervez, Deputy Director of the NWFP industry department, talking to APP on Thursday.

He said the registration took impetus in August when an ordinance in this connection was promulgated by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

He said as the process was heading towards its last date of Dec 31 set by the president, doubts and speculations of the administrations of seminaries were dwindling.

He said that registration of madressahs was banned in 1996, when the number of registered seminaries was 1,440.

Mr Pervez said 463 madressahs had been registered since February 2005.—APP