ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao on Wednesday said that registration of 95 per cent of seminaries in the country had been completed.

Talking to PTV, he said there were about 12,000 madressahs in Pakistan and the purpose of the registration was to remove misconceptions that terrorism or extremism was being promoted in seminaries.

He said the seminaries should not only provide religious education to their students but their curricula should be such that after these students graduated they could get jobs easily.

He said the government was trying to ensure that there was no such material in the syllabus that promoted extremism or terrorism, adding that action would be taken if any such material was found in the syllabus of any madressah.

The minister said that no foreign country had raised any objection against seminaries and the government was not going to close them.

He said there were about 1,200 foreigners studying in various madressahs but 500 to 600 of them had gone back to their countries. “The students who have NOCs of their countries will not be sent back,” he said. However, he pointed out, this policy would not apply to Afghan students.—APP