Honorarium for prayer leaders termed bribe

MANSEHRA: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) local leaders have termed the proposed monthly honorarium of Rs10,000 for prayer leaders as an attempt to suppress the voices of Ulema against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“We have a clear-cut message for government that Ulema affiliated to JUI-F across the province will never accept this monthly gratification as we consider it as an attempt to buy our conscious,” Maulana Saeed Abdullah, the district information secretary of JUI-F told reporters here on Sunday.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led -led provincial government, according to Abdullah, has finalised a plan to pay Rs10,000 each to prayer leaders across province. “We know that the government has obtained this grant from international non-governmental organisations to oblige Ulema and using it as a political stunt.

But we shall never accept it as it is, in fact, a bribe,” he claimed. Abdullah said that his party head Maulana Fazlur Rehman had already asked his followers to reject the monthly honorarium.