No Truth in Claims That Stipends Will Be Used to Control Clerics: Tahir Ashrafi

**ISLAMABAD (Qudrat News):** Chairman of the **Pakistan Ulema Council**, **Hafiz Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi**, has rejected the notion that government stipends for clerics are intended to impose state control over them.

Speaking at a **press conference in Lahore**, Ashrafi clarified that the **Punjab government’s stipend program** will not create any restrictions or discrimination against **imams**, whether they choose to accept the stipend or not.

He expressed optimism that **relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan** would continue to improve and reaffirmed Pakistan’s **support for an independent and sovereign Palestinian state**.