PESHAWAR, Dec 15: The NWFP government has moved a summary for promulgation of an ordinance for making registration of seminaries in the province compulsory. A law department official said the labour and industry department had sent the summary for the approval of the chief minister.

Under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, the labour and industry department registers seminaries and non-governmental organizations in the province.

After the chief minister’s approval the governor would promulgate the ordinance to make registration of seminaries mandatory, the official said.

The governor had promulgated the NWFP Societies Registration (amended) Ordinance, 2005, in August. It was tabled as a bill in the provincial assembly but the treasury benches rejected it on Oct 25.

Officials said that prime minister’s secretariat had requested the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government to incorporate amendments to the Societies Registration Act, 1860, for making registration of seminaries compulsory.

The president had promulgated an ordinance in August, through which amendment was made to the Societies Registration Act.

The four provincial governors later promulgated the ordinance for their provinces.

The sources said that after an agreement between the federal government and the Ittehad Tanzeemat Madaris-i-Deenia, the draft of an amended version of the ordinance had been prepared and sent to the provincial governments for enactment.

Under the amended ordinance, all non-registered madaris will heave to be registered by Dec 31. Every madressah will submit annual report of its educational activities to the registrar and get its accounts audited.

There are about 1,600 unregistered seminaries in the province.

Officials in the labour and industry department said 10 to 15 seminaries were being registered every week.

Nazim’s petition: A judge of the Abbottabad bench of Peshawar High Court on Tuesday admitted the petition of Haripur tehsil Nazim Iftekhar Ahmed Khan for quashing an FIR against him.

The court fixed Dec 19 as the next date of hearing and directed the investigation officer of anti-corruption department to appear in person along with the complete record of the case on the next hearing.

An FIR was lodged with the anti-corruption police on Nov 28, by the auditor of anti-corruption department against Iftekhar Ahmed Khan for allegedly inflicting losses to the TMA amounting Rs20 million.