Clergy divided on honorarium for KP imams, khateebs
KP has released Rs620m stipends
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s treasury department has released stipends worth Rs620 million for imams and leaders of other religions.
On the first day of the fiscal year 2021-22, the provincial government announced the three-month stipend for 20,000 imams and 293 leaders of other religions. This year, honorariums worth Rs2.5 billion will be distributed among imams and other religious leaders across the province.
Chief Minister Mehmood Khan said that his government will make the payment every three months and this will continue in the future.
KP Chief Khateeb Maulana Tayyab thanked the government for working for the welfare of the ulemas.
The project was first conceived before the 2018 General Election when data of around 58,000 ulemas in the country was collected on the orders of then chief minister Pervaiz Khattak. It was, however, decided that the stipend will be given to imams of the mosques where Friday prayers are offered regularly.
While a majority of religious leaders are praising this, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F) thinks this will lead to a divide within the clergy. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman called it a “political bribe” and implementation of an agenda assigned to the provincial government. The party leaders believe that by doing this, the government will try to impose the state narrative on imams. It terms the honorarium a dangerous conspiracy against the mosques. The government is using cheap tactics to gain sympathies of the religious segment, the JUI-F said. The party said that the is trying to eat away the NGO’s funds in the name of providing honorariums to ulemas.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Samiul Haq’s Maulana Yousuf Shah, on the other hand, disagrees with the JUI-F’s stance. We totally support this, he said, adding if it’s okay for the government-appointed imams to take stipend, then why there’s an objection to other imams taking honorariums?
JUI-F claims that the government is imposing its narrative with this step, but this is incorrect, he remarked. No government would ever dare to do such a thing nor the government has imposed any such condition, he added.
Although Rs10,000 is not enough, it’s much better than Rs5,000-Rs6,000 that most of the imams in the province are receiving, he said.
The government consulted WiFaqul Madaris on this after they decided on a procedure for the disbursement of the honorariums.
Special Assistant to KP Chief Minister on Religious Affairs Wazirzada told SAMAA Digital that the programme includes not only imams but also leaders of religious minorities. No minority leader objected to this and appreciated it, he said. Right now there are 293 registered religious leaders of minorities, he said. After the inclusion of merged districts, this will increase to 350. Those who will receive honorariums include priests, pandits, and Kalashi Qazis.
In January, the federal government also announced a monthly stipend for imams and khateebs. Prime Minister Imran Khan had approved a Rs10,000 monthly stipend.
The government has asked for a recommendation on eligibility and financial burden for providing honorariums. After Punjab, KP, and Islamabad, the imams and khateebs from Balochistan will also receive the stipend.
