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'Musharraf wants to replace madarasas with schools'

The United States said on Wednesday that Pakistan was seeking aid not to buy arms but to replace the education provided by the madarasas (seminaries) with modern schools.

"(President Pervez) Musharraf wants to put in place a public education system. One of the reasons he was so interested in getting debt relief was not to buy weapons, but to put in place schools that would teach kids and prepare them for the 21st century," Secretary of State Colin Powell told the International Relations Committee.

Powell was replying to Congressman Ed Royce, co-chairman of the India Caucus, who said there were madarasas in Pakistan, including 4,000 in Peshawar, which "spread lies about the US".

Royce said he visited these schools in 1996 and reported that "they are spreading dissension and that Afghanistan would become a security threat to the US if Washington did not take steps to offset the lies spread from them".

"And it is not only the madarasas. For instance, The Nation said that 4,000 Jewish workers in New York did not go to work on September 11 to the Twin Towers because the Mossad (Israeli intelligence) planned an attack that day," Royce said.

"Such disinformation helps Osama bin Laden. The Shariat Radio of Afghanistan also spreads such disinformation," he said, calling for a separate US-funded radio, like Radio Free Europe, to counter it.

Royce also said the madarasas were funded by the Saudis and one of their conditions was that they be run by the Wahhabi religious teachers - a radical school of thought.

PTI

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