Hardliners, Musharraf face off over madrasas

On Wednesday, as part of a widespread crackdown launched after the July 7 London bombings, the government ordered the country's estimated 14,000 madrasas to sign up by the end of the year or face closure.

But Pakistan's vocal fundamentalist Islamic parties which have so often proved a thorn in Musharraf's side have vowed to defy the measures, along with the Wafaq-ul-Madaris, Pakistan's main grouping of seminaries.

Madrasas offer free religious education and board for more than one million Pakistani children, many of whom have no access to state education, but some have been accused of being breeding grounds for extremism.

Britain pushed Musharraf to take a tough stance after it emerged that at least two of the London bombers had visited the country before the July attacks and that one or more may have visited madrasas.

With shots of madrasa pupils nodding frantically as they recited the Koran being repeatedly shown on television news channels -- and Pakistan's reputation as a big player in the "war on terror" at stake -- Musharraf took action.

Hundreds of so-called extremists were arrested, Musharraf ordered the estimated 1,400 foreigners studying in Pakistan's madrasas to leave, and then the registration order was introduced.

Earlier this month General Musharraf called on his countrymen to reject "retrogressive elements politically and socially" ahead of four-yearly municipal polls seen largely as a test of Musharraf's bid to sideline hardline Islamic groups.

As Pakistan's ruling party claimed victory in the two-stage polls that ended Thursday, officials said the vote had given a clear boost to the General's mission to curb extremism in the Islamic republic.

"The outcome of the elections throughout the country is a victory for the moderates, for the enlightened and a defeat for the extremists," Musharraf said on Friday.

However a group of key religious parties which control more than 8,000 seminaries and schools run by a hardline Sunni Muslim school of thought remained defiant.