LAHORE, March 18: The Punjab police have been directed to scientifically update its data about religious seminaries in the province through a district-wise survey of these schools.

Similar instructions are said to have been given to police departments in the other three smaller provinces.

A sample proforma, seeking such information as number of local and foreign students and teachers, has been sent to the police in all the districts of the province to gather basic information about seminaries as well as mosques. The proforma also seeks information on the mohtamum or administrator of the seminaries besides details as to which sect does they belong to.

Lahore District Police Officer (DPO) Javed Noor told Dawn that the Punjab had sent the proforma to the security wing and the special branch of the Punjab police with a direction to understand it and to evolve a strategy to gather maximum information.

He said: “the provincial home department and the auqaf ministry are corresponding with the police on this issue, giving further instructions on information gathering”.

The DPO said the police already had data about seminaries. “What we have to do now is to countercheck and update it,” he said.

A Punjab security wing official confirmed having received the proforma, adding no further instructions had been conveyed to them so far. He said the security wing was engaged in the Muharram duty at present and work on gathering information about the seminaries would start after Ashura.

Nazmeen in all the districts have also been directed to coordinate with police on information gathering. Similar proformas have been sent to them.

According to the last survey of the seminaries conducted by the interior ministry, there are 6,761 seminaries in Pakistan. Of them, some 3,153 are situated in the Punjab, 1,281 in the NWFP, 905 in Sindh and 692 in Balochistan, 151 in Azad Kashmir, 185 in the Northern Areas and 194 in Islamabad.

A total of 1.3 million students, including 36,000 foreign, are enrolled with these religious institutions. Some 17,000 are said to be Arabs. Afghans are in majority.

Statistics reportedly compiled by the police intelligence bureau in the year 2001 show that there are some 253,125 students in 2,715 seminaries belonging to all religious organizations in the Punjab. Of them, a total of 1,333 belonged to Brelvis, 1,069 are affiliated with Deobandis, 192 are run by Ahle-Hadith and 113 by Shias.

Brelvis are on top of the list with 117,931 students studying in their seminaries, 99,907 are enrolled in the schools belonged to Deobandis, 29,947 are staying in Ahle-Hadith religious schools and 5,340 are registered with Shia seminaries.

There were only 150 religious schools in the areas that became part of Pakistan in 1947. The number went up to 210 in 1950 and since then there has been a constant rise in the number and it reached 401 in 1960 and by 1971 it had gone up to around 563. Then there was an abnormal increase in them during the regime of the late Gen Ziaul Haq. The number of seminaries estimated by a committee set up by Gen Zia in 1979 stood over 1,000 in the Punjab alone.

The sources said that the update on the seminaries was aimed at bringing them on record to examine and monitor their working in future.