CHITRAL: A poor man is finding it hard to meet the expenses of his daughter, who is the first ever girl student of engineering from Chitral, studying in the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar.

Talking to Dawn here on Sunday, Mohammad Nawaz, resident of remote Parwak village, said that her daughter, Shehla Nawaz, had grabbed third position in the Aga Khan Education Board in pre-engineering group, last year, and despite qualifying the entry tests of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Science and Technology and National University of Science and Technology, she couldn’t get admission in these varsities because of unavailability of scholarships.

Working as daily wager with a company with a monthly income of less than Rs20,000, the man already has to bear the expenses of a son in Islamia College University, a daughter and another son in Peshawar University and a son in Aga Khan School, Chitral.

“At this stage, I cannot think of discontinuing the studies of any of my children, except Shehla, because they are in the final stages of their studies,” he said.

Mr Nawaz said that her daughter also appeared in the tests for scholarships conducted by USAID and some other non-government organisations but failed to secure it, while the provincial government also didn’t award her any scholarship despite securing third position in the overall board examinations.

He expressed his dissatisfaction over the fairness of the NGO tests for scholarships, and said that he now looked towards the Higher Education Commission for financial support in this regard. He said that he had sent a number of applications to HEC, but a response was still awaited. Nawaz said that he had managed to pay the expenses of the first semester of the university, but added that he won’t be able to pay for the next semester, which is Rs50,000.

Published in Dawn January 19th , 2015

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