Crackdown called off

Islamabad, Pakistan

Pakistan has backed down from a pledge to expel foreign students from Islamic schools. President Pervez Musharraf had promised a crackdown on madrasas last summer, after one of the London subway bombers was found to have studied at a Pakistani school. Critics say the schools teach a fundamentalist form of Islam that encourages Western and Arab students to join jihadist groups. But the schools refused to turn in their foreign students, and last week the government said it would not use force to expel them. “This government has a track record on backing out on issues of political Islam,” said Najam Sethi, editor of the Karachi Daily Times.