Ghost
Madrassas in Sindh
Why isn’t
anything being done about the 10,000 ghost madrassas in Sindh?
Sindh, the southern province of Pakistan, has always been an
epicentre of progressive political parties which keep a close check over the
spread of religious militancy and violent extremism in their constituencies.
Even though Sindh has been a secular and progressive region, where Sufi
traditions have never let the militant mind-set prevail, the province still
supports tens of thousands of madrassas (Islamic religious schools).
There’s just one
problem: many of these supposed madrassas don’t actually exist.
A meeting, between the officials of Sindh, held in May at the
chief minister’s house in the provincial capital of Karachi, was told by the
inspector general of the Sindh police that over 10,000 ghost madrassas
had been unearthed through physical verification. This verification was
made after 7,724 actual madrassas were geo-tagged.
Ghost schools have been a point of debate in Pakistan for many
years but this new term, “ghost madrassas,” has stayed under the radar. Ghost
schools exist only in government books, from which they receive annual funding from the education
budget. As a result, individuals are able to pocket funds meant for schools
that do not actually exist on ground. Recently, Sindh managed to largely root out many of these ghost
schools; now it has to cope with the new phenomena of ghost madrassas.
Ghost schools are supposedly government entities, and the
provincial government provides funds for them. But who is funding these 10,000
ghost madrassas, and who is benefiting? What is the purpose of these ghost
madrassas?
After all, they exist only on paper, yet most of them are unregistered with the
relevant authorities. Whatever funds they get don’t come from the state.
To answer these questions, I spoke to police officers and other
members of law enforcement agencies, including a senior official with an
intelligence agency. These interviews revealed that ghost madrassas serve as
revenue streams for various religious groups, most of which are engaged in
militancy and violent extremism. A few of the
figures behind these ghost madrassas have political motives, while some are
believed to run ghost madrassas to meet the needs of their families.
Being a hub of Pakistan’s economy and home to the major port
city of Karachi, the province of Sindh alone produces around 65% of the total
revenue of Pakistan. As a result, it also provides an environment that’s conducive
to those seeking to exploit religion to provide their own revenue stream — including
militants.
So how do these ghost madrassas generate money when they are not
funded by the government, unlike ghost schools? Interestingly, I was told that
the most active source of their revenue has been intercity bus routes. The
most common method of fundraising is simply for a bearded man, carrying a
booklet of receipts, to board a bus and ask passengers to donate to the
on-going construction of his madrassa or mosque. Sometimes they resort to
emotionally blackmailing the passengers by asking for their help in feeding
readers of the Quran. Scores of ghost madrassas are promoted as an “additional
room” for a mosque.
These ghost madrassas also collect animal hides on Eid and gather funds
by visiting businessman. Others, rather than collecting funds from bus
passengers, have collection boxes in shops, gas stations, or shopping malls;
they also operate online accounts and promote themselves on social media. Many
ghost madrassas have bank accounts that they mention on their banners, which
are usually hung during holy days. The major chunk of these ghost madrassas are
established by a group of activists who run their collection drive in areas
where the upper class congregates, such
as Khadda market near the army’s housing development in Karachi.
A senior intelligence officer revealed that ghost madrassas
usually operate through bank accounts fusing their fake madrassas and
registered non-governmental organisations. When asked to elaborate on the
mixture of NGOs and ghost madrassas, the officer said the perpetrators want to
keep their revenue intact, avoiding Zakat and tax deductions. Thus, they operate
through a registered non-profit organisation. They use these bank accounts
especially to generate funds from social media and members of the community
living abroad.
The official also said that the ghost madrassa fundraisers are
often involved in money laundering. Through the money they raise, they have
been investing in real estate. Ghost madrassas
have been a successful endeavour because most Pakistanis pay the fundraisers
without verifying if their mosque or madrassas actually exists.
While I was investigating ghost madrassas, I took a bus trip
from Lyari to Thatta and back, a distance of around 15 km. Sure enough, two
boys boarded the bus and started requesting funds for their madrassa,
supposedly being built at Cattle Colony bus stop. This made me remember the
days when I used to travel by bus from Steel Town to Millennium Mall to reach
my college. Every day, someone would board the bus asking for funds for the
same madrassa, which after nine years is still supposedly “under construction”.
Sindh’s inspector general claims there are around 10,000 ghost
madrassas in the province; the real number may be far larger. And these figures
are just for Sindh, our entire country faces the issue of unmonitored madrassas
– who is to say if most of them are ghost madrassas or not. Under the guise of
fundraising for religion, madrassas and mosques, the public is easily tricked.
The majority of people don’t verify that the mosque or madrassa in questions
exists before handing over their money to the ghost madrassa mafia — this is
how we have been fuelling the thousands of criminals and militants who have
taken up this lucrative business. And we need stop doing that now.
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