The government of Pakistan’s Punjab province provided Rs 82.77 million to Jamaat-ud Dawa and its allied institutions during 2009, according to official documents.
The supplementary budget for the past fiscal tabled in the Punjab Assembly for approval revealed that the PML(N)-led provincial government made a grant of over Rs 79 million to the Markaz-e-Tayyaba, the JuD headquarters in Muridke near Lahore.
Another Rs 3 million was given as grants to schools run by the JuD in different districts of Punjab, according to the official documents. Provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah, under a cloud for his links to banned groups like the Sipah-e-Sahaba, admitted that the money had been given to the JuD.
He told a TV news channel on Tuesday that the money was given to these institutions after the JuD was “banned” in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the Punjab government appointed an administrator for the organisation. The purpose of giving these grants was to continue welfare services provided by JuD’s schools, dispensaries and hospitals, Sanaullah said. The UN Security Council declared the JuD a front for the banned Lashker-e-Tayyaba shortly after the Mumbai attacks. Despite claims by Pakistani leaders that the JuD has been “banned,” no formal notification has been issued by the federal government to proscribe the organisation.
Meanwhile, a Punjab government spokesman has contended that the grants for the JuD had been given to the administrator for continuing welfare services.