A Senate panel on Tuesday directed to ensure that students from the newly merged tribal districts are not barred from the admissions in public universities in provinces due to financial constraints.
This was directed during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) was held with Senator Taj Muhammad Afridi in the chair at the Parliament House.
Senator Afridi said that it has been noticed that many public sector universities were reluctant to grant admissions to students from the merged tribal districts (MTDs) because they may face difficulties in paying fees in the future.
The senator urged varsities to refrain from this practice and cooperate with the government.
Regarding the fee waiver for MTD students, Punjab Higher Education Commissioner (HEC) officials told the body that the provincial government has announced fee concessions for such students, however, the decision was later reversed.
They added that the decision was taken purely by the government and that the department did not make any such recommendation.
HEC officials said that universities were constrained by tight budgets to allocate a sum for students' tuition fees.
However, they promised to take up the issue with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Balochistan governments for a solution at the earliest and assured that the enrolment of the MTDs students will not be stopped.
Further, the HEC official said that higher education institution charge only Rs5,000 from a student from MTDs, however, the need for resources to run administrative affairs cannot be ruled out.
She added that they wanted to educate the youth of the tribal areas but required the panel’s help for resolution of the problems.
The official informed that HEC funds some 149 universities across the country to meet their routine expenses such as payment of salaries and development work while institutions rely on student fees for meeting other expenditures.
Further, the panel was informed that some 50,000 scholarships will be awarded to the poor and intelligent students under the Ehsaas Programme. The HEC officials suggested fixing a quota in the scholarships for students hailing from the tribal areas as it will resolve the fee issue.
Representatives of MTD students told the committee that the merger of the tribal districts has not provided to be a panacea to their problems, adding that their issues will be settled when the merged areas become self-sufficient.
The committee was also briefed regarding the total number of SNEs creation, categorisation and upgrading of posts of medical specialists in the hospitals of erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (FATA).
The senate body was told that the first phase of SNEs creation was completed while progress on the second phase is expected soon.
The committee directed to expedite the process as per the devised rules and submit a detailed report.
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