PESHAWAR - Pakistan’s former president Asif Ali Zardari has voiced his concern over the allocation of Rs300 million by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to a Taliban-linked seminary.
“This is nothing but legitimisation of militancy and the Taliban that will undermine the nation’s resolve to fight militants to the finish,” PPP spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said on Zardari’s behalf.
Zardari is deeply concerned over the use of public funds to legitimise a private seminary known for promoting private jihad, according to Babar.  He believed the resources should have been spent on human development instead of a seminary whose claim to fame lay in its promotion of militant Islam.
Babar called the head of Darul Uloom Haqqania a sympathiser and undeclared spokesperson for the Taliban. During the government-TTP talks in 2014 the Taliban actually named Samiul Haq to negotiate on their behalf, the senator recalled.
“Now a privately owned pro-Taliban madrassa has been given Rs300 million. Though the National Action Plan calls for disallowing banned outfits from resurrecting, yet they are openly promoting their militant agenda with impunity,” he remarked.(Pajhwok)