LAHORE: An important meeting was held at the Punjab Home Department on Friday under the chairmanship of Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Law and Order and Provincial Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique to review progress on the “Chief Minister Punjab Honorarium Programme for Mosque Imams”.
The meeting was attended by Home Secretary Dr Ahmad Javed Qazi, Special Secretary Fazlur Rehman, DIGs from CTD and Special Branch, Additional Secretary Internal Security, and Additional Secretary Special Initiatives. Bank of Punjab Chief Digital Officer Nofil Dawood, officials of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), and Bank of Punjab representatives were also present. Deputy commissioners from across Punjab participated in the meeting via video link.
During the meeting, an agreement was finalised between the Punjab Home Department and the Bank of Punjab for the distribution of the honorarium. Additional Secretary Internal Security Maham Asif Malik and Bank of Punjab Chief Digital Officer Nofil Dawood signed the agreement.
Under the “Chief Minister Punjab Honorarium Programme for Mosque Imams,” payments will commence from January 1, 2026. All registered mosque imams across Punjab will receive a monthly honorarium of Rs25,000 each. The first instalment will be issued through a pay order on January 1, 2026, while subsequent monthly payments will be disbursed through Bank of Punjab debit cards.
It was decided that any individual found involved in hate speech or anti-state activities will be excluded from the honorarium programme.
Khawaja Salman Rafique said the Punjab government would spend more than Rs20 billion annually on the honorarium programme for mosque imams. He added that the first pay order and amount would be available at the office of the assistant commissioner concerned, and that the programme would be implemented across Punjab from January 1, 2026.
Home Secretary Dr Ahmad Javed Qazi said the Punjab government had assigned full responsibility for processing the programme to the Home Department. He said the payment mechanism had been designed to be simple, transparent and based on modern systems, adding that the dignity and respect of mosque imams would be fully ensured during the disbursement process.
