PESHAWAR, May 24: Middle East-based Islamic relief agencies have made  the production of valid passport and visa a prerequisite for granting admission to Afghan students in their institutions in Pakistan.

“Our administration has directed the Afghan students, interested in admission, to furnish valid documents by September, otherwise they will fail to get admission,” an official associated with a relief agency told Dawn on Friday. Following the government’s orders in this regard, all Arab NGOs have directed thousands of Afghan students to go by the procedure laid down by the interior ministry.

The official said that for the first time the Islamic charity organizations had laid down strict rules for Afghans and they would have to produce student visas prior to the academic year, to begin in September.

Under the Deeni Madaris (Registration and Control) draft ordinance, 2002, the seminaries will not give admission to foreign students without no objection certificate from the government and visa.

Official sources said that more than 10,000 foreign students, mostly Afghans, were getting religious education in the Frontier province.

At least seven Middle East-based Islamic relief agencies have been providing free education and boarding to Afghans and other foreign students at their seminaries. Initially, the sources said, the Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees (CAR) issued permits to Afghans to get admission in seminaries. Now, the interior ministry has withdrawn the relaxation.

An official of the provincial Auqaf department said that on the directives of the federal government, the NWFP government had constituted a scrutiny committee for foreign funded seminaries, comprising officials of the home and tribal affairs department, CAR and secret agencies.

The committee, the official said, had been empowered to scrutinise the particulars of the foreign students and accounts of the foreign organizations. Similarly, all foreign NGOs would have to get NOCs from the committee before constructing a seminary or mosque, he added.