KARACHI: As part of a drive to “mainstream” the Islamic schools, Pakistan government plans to take control of a network of over 30,000 madrasas, the military spokesperson said Monday.
Addressing a press conference at the military headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, as per Reuters reports Major General Asif Ghafoor, Director General of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), said there is a surge in religious seminaries in Pakistan from 247 madrassas in 1947 to 2,861 in 1980.
“And now there are over 30,000 madrassas. Out of these, only 100 are involved in propagating terrorism,” he said. “The government of Pakistan … has decided that these madrasas will be mainstreamed,” Major Ghafoor told reporters. “An Islamic education will continue to be provided but there will be no hate speech,” Ghafoor.
He talked about wide-ranging subjects to be taught other than religious studies and added that several steps were afoot to control and bring the seminaries into the mainstream.
“All madrassas will be brought under the Ministry of Education so that contemporary subjects can be taught. We will formulate a syllabus which will not have hate speech and students will be taught respect for different sects,” he said.