A day after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar acknowledged “slow progress” in madrassa reforms as part of the National Action Plan, Punjab Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Rana Sanaullah seemed to contradict him, claiming on Tuesday that not a single madrassa in the province had any links with militancy. Addressing a press conference at the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday, Sanaullah provided details of action on madrassas, saying that 13,787 madrassas had been geo-tagged in the province, adding that one million students were getting religious education in these seminaries. Law enforcement agencies have also completed a search operation of hostels and universities, he said. Earlier this month, a number of hostels and seminaries had been raided by LEAs with several dozen suspects detained. With his colleague, home minister Shuja Khanzada assassinated last week, Sanaullah said that they were instituting a “zero tolerance policy” against terrorism. The minister did come up with figures: 532 seminaries raided; 1,100 suspects taken into custody from them; 13,787 madressahs geo-tagged. But then, according to his remarks, the record of each and every student on the roll of these 13,000-odd tagged seminaries was being looked into. So how is he so sure that the militant element has been uprooted? There may be some credible evidence that shows the Shahbaz Sharif government’s commitment to targeting the nurseries of militancy, a commitment dictated by the National Action Plan. But unfortunately, the absence of substance in Mr Sanaullah’s claim does not make it part of the clinching evidence that would put Punjab ahead of the other provinces. On the same day the claim was made, in Sindh surfaced a list of 49 madressahs against which action had been ordered for their links to militancy. Just as it was unclear as to what the action in Sindh would be, it was difficult to assess whether Sindh had been sufficiently inspired by the big brother in the federation, or if both these bigger provinces were equally guilty of many airy-fairy boasts with little achieved on the ground. Sindh has repeatedly been criticised for lethargy and lack of purpose in recent years.
pk.shafaqna.com
