The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) coalition government in KP has finalised their decision to give stipends to as many as 30,000 Pesh Imams in some of the major mosques of the province.
As per details, 30,000 Imams of Jamia Mosques will be paid a stipend of Rs 10,000 every month. According to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, the payment to the prayer leaders will start after completion of legal formalities within a few weeks.
The idea had first been floated back in September during a cabinet meeting in which it had been suggested that khateebs and imams be made formal government employees.
There remains some uncertainty about exactly what the move will entail. The KP Provincial Minister for Auqaf, Habibur Rehman, who belongs to the JI, confirmed to Pakistan Today that while it has been decided that 30,000 Imams will receive these stipends, no criteria has been finalised for the selection of these out of the prayer leaders currently working in KP’s more than 450,000 Jamia mosques.
“We are yet to determine the criteria by which we will choose those eligible for the stipend. We have a meeting scheduled on Monday and it is on the agenda, but we still don’t know the details” he said.
“It will most likely be those Imams that are apolitical and lead the prayer at the bigger older mosques. The ones that are generational prayer leaders and have the trust of their communities” he explained.
The move is expected to do much for the Imams as well as for promoting good sentiment regarding the government and discouraging terrorist discourse in mosques. However, it is far from being free from criticism. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman had earlier rejected the plan as the ‘Western agenda’ of the KP government to hire educated clerics in mosques. He had gone on to say that the ulema of the province would never accept the stipend as the PTI and the JI were simply trying to harbour good relations with the ulema for the upcoming elections.
To this end, Auqaf Minister Habib ur Rehman told Pakistan Today that it would be unseemly to respond to Maulana Fazal ur Rehman’s ‘attack’ as everyone would see that most of those accepting the stipends would belong to his own party.
Another factor is that the government had initially promised to bring in ‘educated imams’ to become prayer leaders, especially in sensitive areas. The plan has not gone through but recognising these imams as government officials could be a way to check this promise off the list before the upcoming elections.
Minister Habib had no decisive answer to this, saying that the criteria was still being decided, and education would be thought upon He did, however, confirm that the stipend was being given only to existing imams.
“We don’t want to make imams political so we will only give it to the ones already in office,” he said.