Clarifying the purpose of allocating funds worth Rs 300 million to religious seminary Darul Uloom Haqqania located in Akora Khattak, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has said the move was aimed at bringing religious seminaries into mainstream.
In an official press release issued on Tuesday, the provincial government, which took the flak from the national press and civil society for allocating funds to Darul Uloom Haqqania, said it had the vision to have a uniform education system in order to bridge the appalling disconnect between the government and seminary system.
“The provincial administration has sought to enhance monitoring and oversight of the religious seminaries which is not possible without catering to their needs and bridging the disconnect,” govt spokesperson Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani said in the statement, pointing to around three million students enrolled in seminaries where they were fed, sheltered and taken care of without any charges.
The spokesperson further said that a major chunk of the fund would also be utilised for construction and repair of the building of Darul Uloom Haqqania.
It may be mentioned that the provincial government is keen to enhance financial as well as technical assistance to religious schools to bring them under the umbrella of provincial education regime.
“Evolving universal education system is the aim of the KP government which certainly is not possible by pushing hundreds of religious schools to isolation,” concluded the spokesperson.