At a time when Pakistain is regarded with suspicion for allegedly not having done enough to stop terror financing, KP’s PTI-led government is set to approve a grant of Rs277m for Maulana Samiul Haq
...
the Godfather of the Taliban,leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as
Mullah Sandwichfor his habit of having two young boys at a time...
’s Darul Aloom Haqqania, otherwise known as the ’jihad university’.
The sobriquet is well-deserved, for the seminary ‐ located in KP ‐ has churned out thousands of holy warriors since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
In fact, so many Afghan Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
leaders have studied here that the maulana, who also heads his own faction of the JUI, is often dubbed the ’father of the Taliban’.
These are dubious credentials, and the PTI ought not to dismiss them lightly.
Indeed, this is not the first but the second time that the madressah is to be the recipient of such largesse.
The provincial government in its 2016-2017 budget allocated it a grant of Rs300m.
The flimsy pretext offered by the PTI then was that the money would go towards implementation of reforms by the Darul Aloom Haqqania to bring it into the educational mainstream.
No doubt there is an urgent need for changes to seminary curriculums in order to curb radical ideologies.
Nevertheless, in the two years since the first grant, it is far from clear what reforms, if any, have been carried out at a madressah whose chief holy man was, not too long ago, unabashedly vocal in his support for the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now among the dear departed, though not among the dearest...as well as the banned TTP.
There has, however, been a significant political development in the interim, with the JUI-S and PTI declaring their intention to form a ’joint strategy’ in the coming election, an alliance presumably designed to counter the JUI-F, their nemesis in KP.
In the run-up to elections, incumbent governments do take steps to shore up their chances at the hustings, but the PTI’s move is a cynical one, and deeply troubling in its disregard for the consequences.