Chitral included in PM’s fee reimbursement scheme
PESHAWAR, May 29: The district of Chitral was on Thursday included in the prime minister’s fee reimbursement scheme for the PhD and MPhil students.
During the budget speech 2013-14, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced that under the prime minister’s fee reimbursement scheme, Rs1.2 billion had been set aside to reimburse the fees of 30,000 deserving students of public sector universities. It was also announced that the scheme would be implemented by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
All students registered for the masters/PhD programmes in public sector educational institutions and holding the domiciles of interior Sindh, southern Punjab (Multan, Bahawalpur and D.G. Khan divisions), Balochistan, less-developed areas of’ KP such as Malakand, Kohistan and D.I. Khan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Fata are eligible to apply for the scheme.
However, surprisingly Chitral was not included in the scheme even though it is located in the Malakand division and is most backward.
Talking to ChitralToday on phone, MPA Saleem Khan said that he took up the matter with the chairman HEC and other authorities during a meeting of the KP assembly’s standing committee on higher education on Thursday. He said he pointed out that Chitral was the most backward district and its exclusion from the scheme despite being in the Malakand division was unjustified.
After this, the authorities concerned instantly issued an order to include the district in the scheme, he added. He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was expected to launch the scheme in Peshawar on June 2.
The MPA also highlighted the unavailability of PhD and MPhil teachers at the university campuses in Chitral. The authorities of the education department promised that the matter would be resolved soon.
fee refunding system i is a good job done by the recent govt. we hope to be good with student s.and it is a good step towards socialiazation .
@Chitral Student Association:
Brother, this scheme is purely for MPhil and PhD fee reimbursement and hence MBA students are not eligible.
Who told you this dear Shahpar Ali??? This programme is for the master level students as well, including MBA, MPA etc.
But the students of BS Hons have again been neglect in the prime minister scheme as they are also part of university and passing eight semesters and paying Rs. 12,000 per semester fee. So it is requested that the prime minister and the MPAs of Chiral should look into the matter and also include the BS students in the fee reimbursement scheme.
Timely step by Chitral Students Association with the support of MPA Saleem Khan finally led to the acceptance of scholarship forms from Chitrali students on May 29.
It may be noted that when the students from Chitral started submitting the forms for the fee reimbursement scheme of the prime minister, they were by the committee midway that Chitral had been excluded from the scheme. This was despite the fact that the names of some students had already been announced.
Responding to the issue, the Chitral Students Association contacted the vice-chancellors with the help of MPA Chitral Mr. Saleem Khan and after the MPA contacted the vice chancellor and the chairperson of HEC, immediately the forms were accepted from Chitali students. For this, we are thankful to the MPA.
Meanwhile, many the names of many Chitrali students were not included in the lists issued by Higher Education Commission despite their eligibility. Three students from MBA department having over 70% results are not included in the list.
A delegation of Chitral Students Association along the MPA Saleem Khan will meet the vice-chancellor. We are hopeful to secure the rights of Chitrali students and express our immense gratitude to the MPA for his timely support.