Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Fuziah Salleh said tahfiz schools which have registered with a religious office should get the prior approval of the PBT before they could operate.

"The religious departments are not authorised to shut down the tahfiz schools because this is not the rule of law. However since the premises need to be registered with the PBT, they (PBTs) have the power to shut down the premises if they are not registered.

"So there must be cooperation between the agencies and Islamic religious departments (state) to ensure safety of the tahfiz schools," she told the Dewan Rakyat sitting in Parliament today.

She said this in reply to Fahmi Fadzil (Harapan-Lembah Pantai) who wanted to know what steps were taken to ensure that all tahfiz maahad institutions throughout the country were registered and controlled in terms of building safety and student population.

Fuziah added that as at October, 815 registered private tahfiz schools have been recorded and the ministry has no record of unregistered tahfiz schools.