PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Monday kept mum during the provincial assembly session about the hide collection campaign by extremist groups in the province ahead of Eidul Azha.

Awami National Party parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak, who raised the issue on a point of order, said workers of various extremist groups had begun wall chalking, displayed posters and circulated handbills in Peshawar and other areas of the province to seek skins of the animals to be sacrificed this Eidul Azha.

He said there were several relief and charity organisations across the country, which generated funds by collection of hides and those funds were being spent in relief and social activities.

Mr Babak said the organisations involved in charity work needed donations and cash assistance.

He, however, warned that workers of extremists groups were active in urban and rural areas of the province and had begun campaign for hide collection ahead of Eidul Azha.

The ANP leader said the extremist outfits had the agenda of promoting extremism in the society and therefore, the government should take notice of activities of the outfits in this respect.

“The people should financially support those bodies, which have welfare agenda, but the groups involved in unlawful activities and promotion of extremism should not be allowed to collect donations openly and should be dealt with strictly,” he said.Opposition leader Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan supported Mr Babak and said collection of hides was a major source of income for charity organisations.

He said some charity organisations were running relief activities and therefore, they deserved donations and support.

Mr Sardar Mehtab said there were groups, which collected donations and hides in the name of religion, but they slaughtered people in the name of Islam.

He said it was the provincial government’s responsibility to monitor activities of suspected groups and persuade the people not to donate hides to such groups.

The opposition leader said the government could stop suspected groups from collection of donations through an executive order or legislation.

The point of order, however, irked members of Jamaat-i-Islami, which is the coalition partner of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

Information Minister Shah Farman, who is the spokesman for the government, was supposed to give reply to the opposition benches on the issue.

He, however, remained tightlipped.

Minister for Zakat and Religious Affairs Habibur Rehman, who belongs to Jamaat-i-Islami, said the people could not be bound to donate hides to certain organisations.

He said many welfare groups were running seminaries and doing welfare work in the society and the people gave them zakat and donations in cash and kind in the name of the Almighty Allah.

Earlier, through a call attention notice, opposition MPA Jafar Shah drew the House’s attention towards the booming business of toy guns and pistols in the province and demanded ban on the manufacturing, sale and purchase of such toys. He said locally manufactured and imported gun toys had flooded the market, which attracted minors, though they adversely affected cognitive abilities of children.

MPA Nighat Yasmeen Orakzai supported the call attention notice and said it was very serious issue and children had been suffering.

She said display of toy guns in shops attracted children, which had very negative impact on the mental growth of children.

Ms Orakzai suggested legislation to discourage sale and purchase of toy guns in bazaars.

Mr Babak also supported the mover.

Replying to the call attention notice, Minister for Works and Services Yousaf Ayub, too, said toy guns were promoting negative trends among children.

He said toy guns were manufactured locally as well as supplied to the local market through Afghan transit trade.

The minister said the government and opposition should jointly legislate on the issue.

On a point of order, MPA Nighat Orakzai said cellphone and solar batteries used for energising mobile phone sets were being supplied to dangerous prisoners in major jails in the province. She said the Dera Ismail Khan jailbreak like incidents could happen again and therefore, the government should take necessary precautionary measures to stop supply of batteries and other banned items to prisoners in the province.

However, the government did not take notice of the issue.