LAUNCH “Prime Minister’s tuition fee payment scheme

Islamabad: April 16, 2013

Prime Minister Justice (R) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso has approved the launch of a scheme for payment of tuition fee to students hailing from Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan and FATA which envisage free education to those who intend doing Masters, M.Phil and PhD.

The Scheme called “Prime Minister’s tuition fee payment scheme” for Masters, M.Phill and PhD was approved and launched at a high level meeting attended by Dr. Sania Nishtar, Federal Minister for Professional and Technical Education, Science and Technology and IT, officials of PM’s Secretariat and Ministry of professional and technical education.

Dr. Sania Nishar briefed the Prime Minister on the salient features of the scheme. The Prime Minister was informed that it was approved by the Federal Cabinet in June 2012 and a sum of Rs. 500 billion was allocated for the purpose in the budget. The scheme envisages that students from Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA will be provided tuition fee by the Federal Government so that they can undertake higher education.

The Minister said that though education is a devolved subject, the Federal Government would provide equity to students so that efforts can be stepped to improve the education standards.

This scheme, she said is a pre-paid scheme where the entire expenditure during Masters, M.phill and PhD degree will be borne by the Federal Government for students residing in these areas. The scheme further envisages that federal government will bear all educational expenditure of an estimated 10825 students from these areas of which 9128 students belong to Balochistan.

The Prime Minister directed that gender parity must be maintained and the scheme should be available for the next five years.

The Prime Minister approved that in case of PhD students of Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan and FATA would be eligible for benefit from the scheme even if they get admission in Universities and Colleges outside their cities / regions. He has also approved that students hailing from Federally Administered Tribal Areas would benefit from the scheme if they are admitted in Universities and Colleges in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa.

The Prime Minister said that his government is prepared to commit more resources to education and prioritize it as it considers it critical to human resource development and future of the nation.