PESHAWAR, May 16: Despite the federal government's ban on registring of new seminaries, the mushrooming of Madressahs goes unabated in the NWFP and the adjacent tribal areas.

Officials in the NWFP industry, commerce and labour department told Dawn that the provincial government had requested Islamabad to evolve a uniform policy on the seminaries across the country or lift the ban on the registration of Madressahs.

Under section 20 of the Society Act, 1860, all the societies, NGOs and seminaries have to register with the industry, commerce and labour department. The interior ministry through an executive order banned the registration of seminaries first in Aug 1994. The ban was relaxed only for 20 days in July 1996 by the government of Benazir Bhutto on the request of the JUI-F leadership.

An official in the provincial industry department said that the NWFP government had asked the Centre thrice to lift the ban or come with a uniform policy to revitalize the seminaries, but it did not receive any response.

A senior official in the Auqaf department said that the number of unregistered Madressahs in the province and tribal areas was growing. He said that people were sending applications to the Auqaf and the industry departments for registering Madressahs, but the concerned officials could not entertain the applications.

The NWFP industry, commerce and labour department had registered 1,437 Madressahs till 1994, while there was no data available about the unregistered seminaries and the number of students.

Following the Sept 11 terrorist attack in US, the then military-led government initiated a campaign that it would keep a check on the seminaries and introduce a new registration policy for them.

"The Centre is issuing rhetorical statements about Madressahs' registration, but nothing has been done practically. There is no financial assistance or policy for the seminaries so far," the officials said.