PESHAWAR: Awami NationalPartyhasexpressed its opposition to the allocation of Rs300 million in the provincial budget for a seminary in the hometown of the chief minister, which allegedly has also produced leaders of Taliban.

In a statement issued by the party`s central information secretary Zahid Khan onWednesday,ANPopposed the allocation of Rs300 million in the budget for fiscal year 2016-17 for Madressah Haqqania in Akora Khattak, run by Maulana Samiul H aq.

The ANP stated that two students of this seminary were arrested for their alleged involvement in the killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. It said that the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan, present and previous ones, had also been students of this seminary.

The statement said that the KP government instead of promoting science and research in universities and colleges with allocation of huge funds was giving this money to the seminary which had been alleged of having links with terrorists.

The ANP stated that this was an attempt to promote a particular thought which should be opposed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly members. It also said that these funds should have been allocated to the colleges and universities in every division of the province.

The ANP spokesperson said that his party set up a university in each division during its tenure in the province, but the ruling Jamaat-i-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had allocated funds for a religious seminary, which promoted a particular thought.

It said that ANP was kept out of political field during the previous general elections with the use of terrorists. It stated that a seminary which spread extremism and division was being funded by the government without clarifying what these funds would be used for.

Perhaps the PTI government has awarded the seminary for keeping ANP out of the way in the previous general elections, taunted the ANP spokesperson in the statement. He said that before operation `Zarb-iAzb`, PTI chairman Imran Khan, Maulana Samiul Haq and Professor Ibrahim were acting like representatives of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan as members of the government team for talks with the Taliban. Bureau Report