Geo-mapping of seminaries completed in Punjab, Sindh and ICT

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ISLAMABAD: The local authorities completed 100 per cent geo-mapping of religious seminaries in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Punjab and Sindh on agreed parameters, revealed Review-2018, issued by National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), regarding the implementation of National Action Plan (NAP).

According to NACTA, the geo-mapping of all religious places of worship had been undertaken. 95 per cent geo-mapping was completed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 90 per cent in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and 80 per cent in Balochistan. NACTA asked the provinces to expedite the process of data collection of religious seminaries on the prescribed forms and to submit the report.

NACTA said that as per estimates, there were over 32,272 religious seminaries in the country and in order to address the issue of illegal seminaries, two separate seminary data and seminary registration forms had been developed by NACTA in consultation with Ittehad-e-Tanzeem-ul-Madaris Pakistan (ITMP) for their regulation and mainstreaming.

The registration and data forms were finalised after being shared with provincial governments and intelligence agencies for soliciting their views and comments.

These forms had now been provided to provincial governments for adoption.

NACTA asked the provincial home and education departments to discuss and build consensus on placing data collection and registration of seminaries under a single authority/department on a uniform format with their respective political leadership/bureaucracy.

As many as 1,373 cases had been registered against hate speech, or the publishing of hate material from Dec 2014 to 2017, while 2,566 people had been arrested and at least 70 shops had been sealed.

Likewise, 19,895 cases of misuse of loudspeakers had been registered, 20,679 people had been arrested and 8,759 pieces of equipment confiscated on the allegation of the misuse of loudspeakers.

A total of 66 organisations had been declared proscribed and four had been put under observation, while 7,966 individuals had been placed under Schedule IV, 4,962 bank accounts had been frozen through the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). An amount of over Rs 93.980 million was frozen. Over 2,052 individuals were facing movement restrictions from 2014 till now.