NOWSHERA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Wednesday justified his government’s decision to pay monthly stipend to prayer leaders in the province saying when teachers are getting salary from the government, why it should be denied to clerics, who preach Islamic teachings.

“As the state has assumed the responsibility of caring for teachers in the form of payment of salary, I wonder why those imparting religious teachings to the people have been deprived of it,” he told a religious ceremony here at Manki Sharif.

The chief minister also inaugurated a seminary.

He told participants that the government was ensuring the provision of religious education to the children enrolled in its schools.

Mr Khattak said the PTI government had not only revamped the education system during the last four and a half years but had also tried its best to promote Islamic education in the province.

He said the curriculum was reviewed in consultation with religious leaders, while more suggestions on it were welcome.

Religious leader Maulana Mohammad Tayyab criticised the political parties opposed to the proposed merger of Fata with KP and said tribal region would become part of the province soon.

He said the leaders, who had got votes from the people in the name of Islam, had done nothing for the region.

WAPDA WORKERS PROTEST: The Wapda Hydro Electric Labour Union on Wednesday took to the streets here, insisting the local Wapda employees were recently transferred for reporting power theft by the nazim of Mohib Banda area.

They warned they would lock their offices if those politically-motivated transfers weren’t reversed by January 11.

The protesters led by the union’s provincial deputy chief, Ali Sayed Khan, first gathered outside the Pabbi Press Club and then took out a procession on the main GT Road and warned if the transfers weren’t cancelled, the protests would spread to others district.

They also announced that the offices of all four subdivisions of Nowshera would remain closed on Jan 11 against the transfers.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2018