Government resumes scholarship programme for Afghan students

Scholarship programme was postponed last year as Pakistani embassy could not hold entry test due to security concerns

ISLAMABAD: Government has resumed a scholarship programme for Afghan students after suspension of nearly eight months, Pakistan embassy officials in Kabul said on Thursday.

The scholarship programme had been postponed in August last year as the Pakistani embassy was unable to hold an aptitude test for thousands of applicants due to security concerns and threats to diplomats had forced them to shift to the embassy compound for around 10 days.



“The Pakistani embassy has started enrolment of the Afghan students and a three-day English test started on Thursday (March 10),” Akhtar Munir, an embassy spokesperson, told The Express Tribune in a telephonic conversation from Kabul.

Around 6,500 students have applied for the Pakistani scholarships under Prime Minister’s Scholarship Programme for the Afghan students and all are scheduled to appear for the test until March 12, Munir said. “The embassy has already announced the test’s schedule on its website,” he added.

A total of 2,000 of 3,000 scholarships have already been granted to Afghan students in different disciplines including in medical and engineering colleges while six to seven hundred students will be selected for this year’s programme, the spokesperson revealed.

Officials of Higher Education Commission (HEC) and their Afghan counterparts will monitor the test which will be held on the premises of the Pakistani embassy.



Further, Munir said Pakistan spends about $55,000 on every Afghan student at medical and engineering colleges.

The executive committee of the National Economic Council was informed last year that the government of Pakistan has allocated Rs4201.541 million for the Afghan scholarship scheme.

Up to 7,000 Afghan students presently study in Pakistan on self-finance basis while over 30,000 Afghans, who have completed their education in Pakistan, are now serving their country in different government departments both civil and military as well as multi-national companies.

“Pakistan has contributed in Afghanistan’s educational sector and has built Liaquat Ali Khan engineering university in the northern Mazar-e-Sharif, Allama Iqbal Faculty at Kabul University and Rehman Baba school and hostel in Kabul,” Munir said, adding thousands of students are studying in these institutions.

Besides, around 500,000 Afghan refugee children are currently studying in Pakistan.



Last year, the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and the Afghan government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish the Afghanistan Scholarship Programme (ASP), which was announced by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani during his first ever visit to Islamabad in 2014.

Afghanistan had allocated an initial fund of $1 million for this program, which will be complemented by an additional amount of $2 million announced for the programme by the Government of Pakistan, according to former Afghan ambassador Janan Mosazai.