Darul Uloom Haqqania funding: Was it a political bribe by PTI?
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PESHAWAR: (APP) The allocation of Rs.300 million for Darul Uloom Haqqania in the KPK Budget 2016-17 has been widely criticized by the politicians, terming it politically motivated besides being putting negative impact on efforts to de-radicalize the society.
Senior PPP leader Rahimdad Khan when contacted said that the PTI government should allocate funds for the religious seminaries of the province instead of a particular seminary. There was no justification for the PTI government to allocate such a huge amount for a specific Madrassa situated in the home district of the Chief Minister.
Under Madrassa reforms, it was proposed that the government would support religious educational institution but irrespective of any political affiliations. Imparting education of modern day subjects like IT, Computer Science, Maths, English and other science subjects to the students of the religious seminary would help them for bringing in the mainstream of development, he said.
Since the popularity graph of the PTI has declined in KP due to its poor performance in last three years, the PTI led coalition Government allocated funds for Darul Uloom Haqqania to win their support in the coming general elections, he said.
The unjust and unequal distribution of the funds has created a stir in the ranks and files of other religious seminaries working under the domain of Wifaqul Maadaris, he added.
The government could have supported the Haqqania Madrassa from the Zakat and Usher funds instead of allocating separate funds for it, he said adding, a new hospital, a university or a college could be built with Rs 300 million allocations made for it.
To a question he replied that PPP Co-Chairman and former President Asif Ali Zardari termed the allocation for Haqqania Madrassa held the funding as legitimizing militancy and Taliban by the PTI government.
Parliamentary leader of ANP Sardar Hussain Babak told that the only commonalty between the TTP and PTI was that both were kind to Maulana Samiul Haq whose Madrassa has been granted Rs 300 million funds in 2016-17 KP budget.
The PTI government has backed out from its madrassa reforms process and instead provided funds for a seminary of a particular school of thought. What reforms the PTI government has taken viz a viz Madrassa reforms in its three years stint, he added.
Former KP Minister Wajid Ali Khan when asked to comment over the allocation for Haqqania, termed it a political bribe by the PTI government to seek support of the radical forces for the next general elections and to avoid TTP's annoyance. The funding played the role of a double edged sword, he explained.
This fund could have been better utilizedd by the provincial government starting a special project for imparting education to orphans of war of terror, needy and deserving children in the province. Under the NAP, it was proposed to introduce modern syllabus in the religious seminaries but the KP Government targeted only a specific seminary for funding which is unjust and biased as there were other scores of such seminaries across the province which deserved government's patronage.
