Rs300m funding to KP seminary legitimises Taliban: Zardari

ISLAMABAD: PPP co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday expressed concern over the allocation of Rs300 million of public funds to a privately owned seminary in Nowshera known for its links with the Taliban. 

“This is nothing but legitimisation of militancy and the militant Taliban that will undermine the nation’s resolve to fight militants to the finish,” he said in a statement. The PPP spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said the former president was deeply concerned over the use of public funds to legitimise a private seminary known for promoting private jehad.

“The resources should have been spent on human development instead of on a seminary
 whose claim to fame lies in its promotion of militant Islam and the world view of Islamic militants,” he added. 

Babar said it should have happened around the time when a group of Taliban reportedly claimed responsibility for the target killing of Amjad Sabri Qawwal in Karachi.

He said the head of Darul Uloom Haqqania in Nowshera was an acknowledged sympathiser and undeclared spokesperson for the Taliban.  During the government-TTP talks in 2014 the Taliban actually named the head of the seminary to negotiate on their behalf, he said. 

It is also widely known that a number of militant Taliban leaders have been students of this seminary.  He said in the wake of killing of Mulla Mansour Akhtar in Balochistan recently it appeared that some elements were reviving the jehadi project. 

Explaining this, he said recently conservative religious parties led by a proscribed organisation held congregations in Islamabad protesting Mansour’s death.  “Now a privately owned pro-Taliban madrassah has been given Rs300 million. I though the National Action Plan calls for disallowing banned outfits from resurrecting, yet they have resurrected and are openly promoting their militant agenda with impunity,” he said and questioned: “Is the revival of jehadi project by design or by default.”