Lahore-based non-profit raises funds for Pakistan’s first fee-less university in Kasur

Fundraiser for Pakistan’s first fee-less varsity in Kasur organised in Karachi

KARACHI: In order to raise funds for Pakistan’s first fee-less university in Kasur, Punjab, a Lahore-based non-profit hosted the first of a series of planned fundraisers starting with Karachi on Monday.

With the dream of spreading higher education in the country, the Akhuwat Foundation has launched an initiative to establish the country’s first university that will not charge any fees from students. The organisation will also hold fundraisers in Multan, Lahore and Islamabad until January 27.

“Some mothers sell their jewellery for their children’s higher education but what about those parents who cannot even do that?” asked Akhuwat Foundation Chairperson Dr Amjad Saqib while speaking at the event held at the Narayan Jagannath Vaidya (NJV) High School on Sunday.



Envisioned before 2003, Akhuwat aims at alleviating poverty by empowering socially and economically marginalised families through interest-free microfinance and by harnessing entrepreneurial potential, capacity building and social guidance.

Dr Amjad told the participants that when he started giving out microfinance loans in 2003, the recovery rate was 99.9%. He then thought that if loans could be given interest-free, why could not education be provided free of charge as well?

He said the proposed university would be a residential institute, where an equal number of students would be accommodated from Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan. “The architect has estimated that the campus will be built at a cost of Rs500 million,” said Dr Amjad.

He added that Akhuwat could have taken this amount from industrialists or educationists but the organisation wanted the common man to own the institute. “The idea of this fundraising is to buy a brick and build the university,” he explained. “By buying a single brick for Rs1,000, 500,000 people can make this dream of free-of-charge university a reality.”

In continuation of its work in the education sector, Akhuwat has also adopted more than 200 schools in collaboration with the government and is working on reforming these schools physically and academically.

The organisation has been successful in providing an opportunity for a better future to the people of Lyari through the DCTO School in collaboration with The Kiran Foundation and has also adopted NJV School, the oldest school in Sindh and a national heritage site, in attempt to restore its former grandeur and make it a leading academic institution.



Scriptwriter and satirist Anwar Maqsood, who hosted the fundraiser, said that education had not been given priority by the government since Pakistan’s inception.

Appreciating the work done at the adopted schools by Akhuwat, he said that by these steps they were providing education to marginalised segments of society because children of leaders did not get educated at these schools.

For its fundraisers planned across the country, the nonprofit has invited a Turkish troupe of dervishes, Konya Buyuksehir Belediyesi. The performances have been organised in collaboration with the Turkish embassy, the municipality of Konya and Turkish Airlines.

A team of 12 dervishes performed on stage with six handling the music and the rest dancing.

Turkish consul-general Murat Mustafa Onart thanked the Akhuwat Foundation for initiating this project to further education and extended his all-out support.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2017.