Unfulfilled commitments: Displaced students protest over unchanged fee structure

Say the former prime minister directed institutions to give concessions.

PESHAWAR: A large number of students classified as internally displaced persons (IDPs) expressed concern on Thursday over non-implementation of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s directives regarding fee concessions in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) educational institutions.

The displaced students held a protest outside the Peshawar Press Club under the banner of Fata Students Federation (FSF). Participants held placards inscribed with demands for fee concessions and chanted slogans against the K-P government and education department for not obeying the then prime minister’s orders.

Addressing journalists, FSF President Haroon Luqman Afridi said former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had announced fee concessions for all IDPs who had left Fata due to the law and order situation and enrolled themselves in various schools, colleges and universities in the province’s settled areas.



He lamented such students were still being charged full fees by their institutions despite being told to do otherwise by the former premier. He added these students belonged to poor families and could not afford to pay the full amount to finance their studies.

Afridi demanded the K-P governor take note of the situation, saying there was a great deal of unrest amongst students regarding their future.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2013.