President Pervez Musharraf has ordered all foreigners studying at the religious schools, known as madrassas, to leave by December 31 as part of a drive to stamp out terrorism and religious extremism following the July 7 London bombings.
Three of the London suicide bombers were Britons of Pakistani descent and Pakistan issued the expulsion order after revelations that at least one had visited a madrassa in the country.
Mohammad Hanif Jallandari, a senior cleric of the Ittehad-e-Tanzeemaul Madaris, an alliance of madrasas, said around 700 foreign students, out of a total of 1,400, had left Pakistan after the government's order. He said madrassas were also not enrolling any more foreign students, but would not respect the deadline.
"The move is based on wrong assumption that foreign students are involved in illegal activities. They have legal travel documents, valid visas and none of them is wanted or suspected in any criminal or terrorist act. So what is the issue?"
"We want a peaceful settlement of this matter, but if they try to impose something, we will not accept it at all."
VISAS CANCELLED In Sindh, authorities had cancelled the visas of all the 92 foreign students still at madrassas there, provincial spokesman Salahuddin Haider said.
"If they do not leave by December 31, we will deport them. But the process will take seven to eight days, as there would be some issues regarding the logistics and availability of flights."
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told Reuters 65 percent of foreign madrassa students had left the country and the government would not extend its deadline.
"The provinces will submit reports on the issue on December 31 and any further action will be based on those," he said.
Jallandari said Ittehad-e-Tanzeemaul would decide its actions on Saturday, but it had no intention of expelling foreign students. "It's a discriminatory policy," he said. "Foreign students are allowed to join colleges and universities in Pakistan but they are barred from madrassas."
The number of foreign students at madrassas fell sharply after Pakistan imposed tougher visa rules after joining the US-led war on terrorism following the September 11 attacks in 2001.