ISLAMABAD: Former President Asif Ali Zardari has expressed concern over the allocation of public funds of Rs 300 million to a privately owned seminary in Nowshera.
"This is nothing but legitimization of militancy and militant Taliban that will undermine the nation's resolve to fight militants to the finish," he said in a statement issued by the party secretariat here Sunday.
Spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said,"The former President is deeply concerned over the use of public funds for legitimizing a private seminary."
The resources, he said, should have been spent on human development instead of on a seminary "whose claim to fame lies in its promotion of militant Islam and the world view of Islamic militants."
"That it should have happened around the time when a group of the militant Taliban reportedly claimed responsibility for the target killing of Sabri Qawwal in Karachi makes it all the more poignant," he said.
Zardari said said,"The head of the Darul Uloom Haqqania in Nowshera is an acknowledged sympathizer and undeclared spokesperson of the Taliban.
"During the government-TTP talks in 2014 the Taliban actually named the head of the seminary to negotiate on their behalf, he said. It is also widely known that a number of militant Taliban leaders have been students of this seminary."
He said that in the wake of killing of Mullah Mansoor Akhtar in Balochistan recently it appeared that some elements were reviving "the jehadi project".
Explaining this, he said,"Recently conservative religious parties led by a proscribed organization held congregations in Islamabad protesting Mansoor's death. Now a privately owned pro- Taliban Madrassah has been given Rs 300 million."
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