Pakistan to offer scholarships to 3,000 Afghan students

Pakistan's Higher Education Commission (HEC) will offer scholarships to around 3,000 Afghan students under a four-year programme, authorities said on Saturday.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan said that the scholarships would be offered in phases and every year students of different categories will be the beneficiaries of the programme, reports Xinhua news agency.

Awan said that the Afghan students, who are capable and have a passion to pursue their educational careers are being invited to get higher education in different institutes of Pakistan in various fields, including medicine, engineering, agriculture, and management and computer science, among others.

The announcement came after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani completed his two-day state visit to Pakistan on Friday.

According to Awan, under the scholarship programme, overall 600 students would be given admission in different medical and dental colleges while 600 students would be given admission in different engineering universities.

"In first, around 795 Afghan students would come to Pakistan this year for studies," said the Special Assistant, adding that the scholarships are a gift from the government of Pakistan.

The Afghan students will get facilitation for admission in different master level and Ph.D. programmes also in different universities of Pakistan.

The official said the scholarships will cover living allowance, book allowance, hostel dues and tuition fees of the Afghan students.

The aim of the scheme is to strengthen the bilateral relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan and to enhance people to people contacts between the two neighbouring countries, the official added.