The Australian High Commission has not funded the Malik Welfare Association, directly or indirectly
ISLAMABAD: The Australian High Commission would like to correct a recent news report and an editorial stating that it provided Rs3 million in 2013-14 to the Malik Welfare Association Baltistan “to support seminaries in the northern areas of the country”. This was published in The Express Tribune on January 28 and January 29, respectively. Australia does not provide funding to religious seminaries in Pakistan. In 2004, the Australian High Commission’s Direct Aid Programme provided Rs307,350 to the Malik Welfare Association to support the establishment of the Karakoram Paradise Public School in Skardu, consistent with our policy of supporting the provision of basic education.
The Australian High Commission has not funded the Malik Welfare Association, directly or indirectly, since then. Australia’s development assistance to Pakistan — AU$75.7 million in 2013-14 — promotes economic growth, poverty reduction and human development, including for women and girls. Included in this assistance is Australia’s support to the education sectors in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) to improve basic education services by increasing access, enhancing quality and strengthening provincial education governance systems. In G-B, the Education Development and Improvement Programme (AU$12.47 million, 2010-2015), implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation, is improving the accessibility, quality and equity of education by increasing enrolment and retention rates in schools, including for previously out-of-school children.
In 2013-14, this programme enabled the first analysis of children with disabilities to be undertaken in G-B. An additional 234 children with disabilities were enrolled in schools as a result. Australian aid directly supported 179,523 students, of whom 86,779 were girls, to access higher quality education in Balochistan, G-B and K-P in 2013-14.
Faizan Haq
Media & Political Officer
The Australian High Commission
Published in The Express Tribune, February 1st, 2015.
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