RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has started the process of taking over seminaries and health facilities run by Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) in Rawalpindi as it has taken control of the Hudabia Madressah on Chakra Road and asked the Auqaf department to assume its administration.

The district administration has also taken control of four dispensaries run by the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) — the charity wing of JuD — located on Chakra Road, Naseerabad, and adjoining areas of the city.

The federal government has barred companies and individuals from giving donations to JuD, FIF and other organisations on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions list.

Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan issued a notification to all companies, prohibiting them from donating money to the entities and individuals listed under the UNSC sanctions committee’s consolidated list.

The UNSC sanctions list includes the names of Al Qaeda, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, JuD, FIF and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Action taken after anti-terror law is amended to place a ban on UNSC-listed groups, individuals

After this, the Punjab government started the process of taking control of the seminaries and health facilities run by JuD and FIF in the province. Last Friday, the provincial government directed the Auqaf department to take control of the seminaries.

“The provincial government handed over a list of four seminaries in Rawalpindi to the district administration. The district administration teams have visited the seminaries but JuD has denied any link with the madressahs,” said a senior official of the district administration while talking to Dawn.

However, he said, the government had taken control of Madressah Hudabia — which comprised a college, a school and a seminary — and started conducting an audit of its finances to check details of the funding and the expenditures.

The official said that the government had directed the district administration to also check the details of students and teachers of the JuD-run seminaries as well as doctors and paramedical staff of the FIF dispensaries.

He said that the government had constituted a joint team of the district administration, police and the Auqaf department to check the details.

He said that a similar operation would also be launched in Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Talat Mehmood Gondal confirmed that the government had assumed control of one seminary and four dispensaries, run by JuD and the FIF, respectively.

He said that the seminary had been handed over to the Auqaf department and the dispensaries to the health department.

He said that the education and health facilities would now be run by the government.

Regional Administrator of the Auqaf department Zahid Iqbal said that the government had appointed a new Khateeb from Alhe-Hadis sect to take care of the seminary where 300 students were enrolled.

He said that a survey had been conducted to check the seminaries run by JuD in other parts of the district as per the list provided by the government.

However, observers believe that it will be a difficult task for the government to take over JuD offices scattered across the country.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2018