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Thursday March 28, 2024

KP government defends Rs300m Haqqania fund

By our correspondents
June 22, 2016

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has defended the allocation of Rs300 million funds in the annual budget for Darul Uloom Haqqania at Akora Khattak. Spokesman for the KP government Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, through a statement, clarified the purpose of the allocation.

He said the move was aimed at mainstreaming the religious seminaries as around three million students were enrolled there where they were fed, sheltered and taken care of free of cost.

Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, who is also the Special Assistant to the chief minister on Information and Higher Education, said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government had the vision to streamline all sorts of education and convert it into one education system.

“The government seeks bridging the appalling disconnects between the government and the seminary system,” he added.The spokesman said a major chunk of the fund would also be utilised for the construction and repair of the seminary building.

In addition, he said the provincial administration wanted to enhance monitoring and oversight of religious seminaries, which is not possible without catering to their needs and bridging disconnects.

The spokesman said the provincial government was keen on enhancing financial as well as technical assistance to religious schools in the province to bring them under the umbrella of the provincial education regime and the step was the first in this direction.

Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani said evolving a universal education system was the target of the KP government, which certainly was not possible if hundreds of religious schools in the province were pushed towards isolation.