Senators seek transparency in awarding scholarships abroad

Committee says education and professional training ministry most appropriate to handle process

ISLAMABAD:

The upper house of parliament adopted on Friday recommendations for making the process of awarding foreign scholarships to Pakistani students more transparent.

The Senate special committee had submitted its report on the issue of the lapse of various scholarships offered by different countries to the students of Pakistan brought up by Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed way back in July.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani then formed a special committee with the mandate to deliberate on the issue and report back within two months.

Since the necessary data from the various ministries was not available, the committee requested extension in the time period to submit its report.

The committee gathered figures from the Federal Education and Professional Training Ministry, Higher Education Commission (HEC), Economic Affairs Division (EAD) and Foreign Affairs Ministry on the foreign scholarships offered to Pakistan students.

The record presented by the institutions showed that in most cases, the HEC, which advertises the scholarships, causes some delays and after scrutiny of candidates, the list of nominees is sent back to the ministry concerned, which then transmits the names to the donor agencies.

The Senate committee reported the major fault in the delay leading to lapse of certain scholarships was the lack of coordination among various ministries and the HEC. With properly defined standard operating procedures, the whole process required a single point of responsibility to turn into an expeditious system, the committee stated in the report.

The panel underlined there should be a focal ministry that keeps a watch on the whole process, monitors the data, sends the same to the HEC and expedites the process of sending the successful nominations back to donor agencies.

The committee observed the most appropriate ministry to be the focal ministry was the Federal Education and Professional Training Ministry. The HEC is also associated with the said ministry and the question of scholarship pertains to this ministry.

The committee recommended the government should communicate to all donor agencies that nomination of foreign scholarships be sent to the education and professional training ministry so that inordinate delays and unnecessary red-tape is avoided.

Expressing satisfaction with the proceedings of the committee and the government’s response, Senator Mushahid said there should be a dedicated website with information on scholarships so that anyone in Pakistan can have access to it.

Senator Saeed Mandokhel suggested reserving a quota for smaller provinces such as Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to encourage youth from these areas. He added that a website for this process could help make the process more transparent.

Senator Noman Wazir also endorsed the idea of reserving provincial quotas for foreign scholarships.

Rabbani lamented the Article 27 proviso, which deals with quota, had lapsed in 2013. “The callous attitude of the government can be seen from the fact that the bill is still pending in the National Assembly. For the time being, there is no constitutional cover to the question of quota,” he said.

The Senate has constantly reminded and pleaded with the government to get the bill passed from the assembly but it vain, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2015.