PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday directed the relevant departments to finalise modalities within a week for the Rs2.67 billion initiative to offer stipends to prayer leaders across the province.

The decision was made during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan here.

The participants discussed the early launch of the clerics’ stipend initiative, which was conceived towards the end of the last CM Pervez Khattak-led government but has yet to see the light of day.

The chief minister gave the finance and Auqaf departments a week to work out modalities for the distribution of cheques to prayer leaders.

Under the plans, Rs10,000 monthly stipend will be provided to over 22,000 prayer leaders, including clerics from religious minorities, across the province costing the government Rs2.67 billion annually.

Rs10,000 to be paid to over 22,000 prayer leaders every month

Sources said the initiative was conceived in Dec 2017 but it couldn’t be executed due to administrative hurdles and the formation of the caretaker government for the holding of elections.

In May this year, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan directed the Auqaf department to revive his predecessor’s plan to give away stipend to prayers leaders across the province.

The documents available with Dawn show that the Auqaf department constituted the sub-divisional scrutiny and steering/oversight committees at district and provincial levels respectively at the start of 2018.

The provincial cabinet in its meeting on Aug 9, 2019, decided to declare assistant commissioners all over the province the ex-officio deputy administrators of the Auqaf and establishment department has also issued a notification to this effect on December 10, 2019.

A funds flow mechanism for disbursement of financial assistance had also been prepared in consultation with the Accountant General KP office and currently awaiting the finance department’s concurrence.

The provincial cabinet in its meeting on Aug 23, 2019, decided to shift the functions related to Zakat, usher and social welfare department in the KP Rules of Business, 1985, to Aquaf department, which is currently pending with the law department.

The documents show that the Auqaf department had collected the data of 21,918 prayer leaders of major mosques and 239 religious figures of minorities.

All prayer leaders selected for the scheme will receive stipend amounting to Rs10,000 per month and Rs120,000 per annum with the initiative costing the exchequer Rs2.67 annually.

The provincial capital has the highest number of registered mosques in the province i.e. 2,900 followed by 2,803 in Mardan, 2,273 in Charsadda, 1,522 in Lower Dir, 1,424 in Swat, 1,077 in Dera Ismail Khan, 1,032 in Abbottabad, 1,027 in Mansehra, 944 in Malakand, 961 in Upper Dir and 637 in Kohat.

Also, 149 Christian, 41 Hindu, 73 Kalash and 31 Sikh religious figures have been identified across the province.

A statement issued here quoted Chief Minister Khan as saying that the government was committed to the development of weak and downtrodden segments of society.

He said prayer leaders were completely ignored in the past with no assistance available to them.

The CM directed the Auqaf department to clear encroachments from own land and said modern markets would be established there to generate revenue.

Auqaf secretary Farrukh Sair told Dawn that the clerics stipend programme couldn’t be launched in the past due to certain complications but it would launch very soon.

Senior minister in the Khattak cabinet Inayatullah Khan said it was a very ambitious initiative but bureaucracy didn’t support it.

He said the number of major mosques across the province had surpassed the 22,000 mark.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2019