Monday, July 3 2006 12:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: A Pakistani organisation of Islamic seminaries has threatened a countrywide movement against the government unless it restores the study visa facility for foreign students at the madrassas.

The Ittehad Tanzeem Deeni Madaris (ITMD) secretary (coordination), Qari Hanif Jalundhari, termed the new Pakistani visa policy that seeks to keep out foreign students as 'immoral, brazen and unconstitutional'.

"We vehemently condemn the act of withdrawal of the visa facility for the students of Islamic seminaries," he said.

"We reject the ban on the entry of foreign students in Pakistan since it is an anti-Islamic act," Jalundhari said.

Under the new visa policy announced last week, Pakistan has sought to curb the entry of foreign students and move away from its image of being a producer and exporter of Islamist militancy worldwide.

There are 700 foreign students at the madrassas who have not left despite orders issued last December, according to official figures.

However, these figures do not include thousands of Afghan youths from the refugee camps located in Pakistan and foreigners of different nationalities who are sponsored by the Al Qaeda.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar who announced the visa policy said the idea was to project a "soft" image of Pakistan and attract foreign tourists.

According to Nizam-i-Mustafa Party secretary-general Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi, who opposed the new policy, one million students are getting free education, lodging and boarding at over 12,000 religious institutions of four schools of thought in the country.

The administration is even providing them with free of cost clothes and shoes.