Old ties: China to fund education of ex-nationals in G-B

Chinese govt tells Uighur community that it will bear educational expenses of their children studying in Pakistan.

GILGIT: The Chinese government has told the Uighur community that it will bear educational expenses of their children studying in educational institutions across Pakistan, a representative told The Express Tribune on Saturday.

“It is really good that the Chinese government is taking an interest in our affairs,” said Abdur Rehman Bukhari, General Secretary of the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) Chinese Overseas Association (G-BCOA), a regional body of former Chinese nationals. Known as Uighurs, members of the Muslims community of China now settled in G-B and Rawalpindi had migrated from Xinjiang province before the partition of the subcontinent.

Currently numbering 5,000 households, these families still have ties with their relatives in Kashgar and other parts of Xinjiang, China. Bukhari said that the number of students being financed by China could be around 5,000 and that the G-BCOA would verify the data of students enrolled in various schools in Pakistan for depositing their fee.

Last month, the Chinese government through its embassy in Pakistan had arranged a post-Eid party for their ex-nationals in Gilgit.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2010.