Madrassas set up trusts in face of investigations

Daily Times, June 13, 2006
Madrassas set up trusts in face of investigations into their income sources
By Hasan Mansoor

KARACHI: Soon after formal investigations were launched into the sources of income of some major seminaries and their managers, clerics took refuge in trusts to evade probes, insiders said.

Sources said various government agencies have already started investigating the sources of financial income of dozens of religious personalities - most of them managers of major seminaries - to detect any potential involvement in money laundering.

Sources said that government agencies have taken interest in at least 32 people across the country of which five are based in Karachi - two of them are running Salafi (Ahle Hadith) and three Deobandi seminaries.

Sources said after the management of major seminaries learnt about the government’s investigations they pursued a strategy to evade any government action. For this, investigations reveal, dozens of major seminaries have already formed and registered trusts and charities. These seminaries thus show that their organisations are being run by trusts and not by individuals.

“This trend has been on the rise for a month or so because the authorities are bent on victimizing us,” admitted one madrassa manager while talking to Daily Times on condition of anonymity.

He said such trusts were being formed on the pattern of non-government organisations that would be eligible for financial aid and donations from Pakistan and abroad.

“If NGOs could receive major funds from abroad why not seminaries? In fact, we deserve the money the most because we have a noble cause to serve,” he maintained.

Sources said the government had initiated investigations after seminary officials flatly refused to declare complete details of their income and expenses in paperwork the authorities had designed for the registration of around 14,000 seminaries across the country.

The authorities had threatened the seminaries with strict action if they evaded registration. It also said it would expel some 1,400 international students at Pakistani madrassas. However, the Ittehad Tanzeematul Madaris-e-Deeniya Pakistan (ITMDP), a confederacy of five religious education boards, resisted the move.

Many of the ITMDP madrassas never met the government’s deadlines which led to the initiation of a discrete inquiry against some major players. Insiders said a number of personalities being investigated also possess dual citizenship and significant influence abroad, at least enough to fetch big moneys for their ever-expanding seminaries.

An insider said the establishment of charities and trusts was not a new phenomenon in Pakistan but it was new for seminaries. “We got a cue from some organisations that were banned or put on the watch-list by the authorities in the past, but are still active and alive through the trusts and charities they formed later,” he said.