Reason of rise of madrassas in Pakistan

According to wikipedia (accessed on 17-06-09), "in 1947 there were only 189 madrassas in Pakistan. In 2002 the country had 10,000-13,000 unregistered madrassas with an estimated 1.7 to 1.9 million students. A 2008 estimate puts this figure at over 40,000".

The reason of rise of madrassas to such a large number is very simple. Pakistani government has failed to provide free (or even cheap) education to the children of the poor. The poor have no alternative but to send their children to these madrassa where their children not only get free education but often free food, clothing and shelter.