ISLAMABAD: Launching 24 billion rupees Ehsaas undergraduate scholarship program on Monday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Ehsas scholarships would reveal bright talent in Pakistan.
“50,000 to 60,000 scholarships would be provided every year. And with the increase of resources with the government, the number of scholarships would also grow,” PM Imran Khan said while addressing the launching ceremony in Islamabad. He said the essence of Riyasat e Madina was ehsas (empathy). Empathy with weak was the canon of Riyasat e Madina, he maintained.
“Those getting benefit from the scholarships would uplift their families as well as their country,” he said adding that a small group of people had confiscated all the resources in Pakistan and only they got quality education, while the commoners were barred from making progress.
The prime minister said six million people had been granted health cards in entire Punjab.
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Special Assistant on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Sania Nishtar said it was the country’s biggest ever need based scholarship program for the undergraduates.
She said 50,000 scholarships will be given each year to the deserving students of 119 public sector universities across the country including Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. A total of 200,000 students will benefit from this program.
Sania Nishtar said that 50 percent quota had been fixed in the undergraduate scholarship program for the women whilst two percent for the disabled persons.
She said the scholarship program covered the tuition fee and Rs4,000 rupees would be given to the students as a monthly stipend.
The Special Assistant said that over 132,000 had applied for the scholarship.
She said the whole process had been completed transparently with the cooperation of Higher Education Commission. She said the HEC online portal for the receipt of scholarship applications for the next year will be opened this June.
Sania Nishtar said that various programs had been launched under Ehsaas program to steer the poor people out of poverty.