Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has allocated Rs 300 million in its budget to a madrasa called Darul Uloom Haqqania Nowshera which is also known as the ‘University of Jihad’.
Its alumni include top Afghan Taliban leaders, with former chief Mullah Omar also having received an honorary doctorate from the seminary.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Minister Shah Farman told the Assembly that the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) government was not raiding and targeting religious institutions, but cooperating and providing financial assistance to it.
Earlier, the parliamentary party leader of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F Maulana Lutf-ur-Rehman had said that the provincial government should stop raids and targeting religious institutions and its students, reported The News International.
When asked why such financial assistance was being provided to a single seminary, Minister for Religious Affairs Habibur Rehman said that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had promised Haqqania madrasa administration financial assistance of Rs 150 million, which was adjusted in the Auqaf fund this year.
Rehman said that half the funds would be given in 2016-17 while the remaining amount would be given to it next year. Founded in 1947, the madrasa is currently headed by Maulana Sami ul Haq, the leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.
Haqqani Network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, Al-Qaeda leader in the Indian Subcontinent Asim Umar and slain Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, were among alumni of the seminary.
(With agency inputs)
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