PESHAWAR, March 26: The Auqaf department has not yet received instructions from the federal and the NWFP governments about the registration of Madaris and mosques in the province.

Sources in the department told Dawn that only two Madaris and four mosques had applied for registration in the wake of President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s speech to the nation on Jan 12 in which he had called for the registration of Madaris and mosques by March 23.

They said there were expectations that a Deeni Madaris (Registration and Control) Ordinance 2002 would be promulgated, but, they added, President Musharraf’s speech on March 23 made no reference to the matter.

Sources said that people visited the Auqaf department for registration of their Madaris and mosques, but they were not in a position to guide them about the procedure as they were yet to receive from the federal or provincial governments instructions in this regard.

About 900 Madaris were registered in the NWFP in 1994 before the then PPP government placed a country-wide ban on the registrations, they said.

According to a rough estimate, there are about 800 unregistered Madaris and a large number of mosques in the province. They further said that more than 6,000 religious institutions had been operating across the country where over 600,000 students were enrolled.