Pakistan Government has no plans to shutdown or control madrassas but their registration is a must, an official said amid a crackdown on the seminary system, often accused of fostering terrorism.
To check mushrooming of unregistered seminaries, notices have been issued to 53 unregistered madrassas in the capital, said Parliamentary Secretary of Interior Maryam Aurangzeb.
After the Peshawar school massacre in December last year in which 150 people, including 134 children, were killed by Taliban militants, there has been renewed concerns about unregulated madrassa system and the need to reform such seminaries.
In 1996, then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had discontinued a requirement that new madrassas register with the state. The decision led to the mushrooming of unregistered seminaries.
On the government's National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terrorism, Aurangzeb said its implementation is the foremost priority to "make the country a cradle of peace".
She said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is himself overseeing the implementation of the NAP that envisages the establishment of special courts for the speedy trial of terror accused and a crackdown on sectarian outfits.
On arms licences, she said the government has no intention at this stage to restart issuing new licences.
She said that previous record of arms licences is being corrected and digitalised.
She also announced that the government will soon restart a helpline through which people can directly approach the Prime Minister for the redressal of their grievances.
The helpline which was started during the last tenure of Sharif in the late 1990s will be revived,
She, however, did not give the exact time to restart the helpline.
