LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has announced increasing the annual amount of the Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF) from Rs2 billion to Rs4 billion and giving educational scholarships to 200,000 deserving talented students the next year.

He also announced giving scholarships for an MSc education to the talented students belonging to FATA under the PEEF.

The announcements were made at a function to celebrate achieving 100,000 educational scholarships on Friday.

Mr Sharif said that not only Punjab but the less-privileged but hardworking and talented students of Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir, FATA and Gilgit-Baltistan had also been included in the scholarship programme.


200,000 deserving talented students to benefit next year


He said these PEEF scholarships were for those millions of Pakistani children whose parents despite a difficult situation equipped their children with education.

The chief minister said the Punjab government had set up the biggest education endowment fund in the world for intelligent students of poor families to get education in local and foreign prestigious educational institutions.

Referring to the cooperation of UK’s Department For International Development (DFID) in education, he said the fund was extending full cooperation to the Punjab government in skills development, education and health.

He said the unconditional aid given by their friends was acceptable but conditional aid was not. He said that the cooperation of DFID in the provision of scholarship was also unconditional.

PEEF Vice-Chairman Dr Amjad Saqib said that today was a historic day as the target of 100,000 scholarships had been achieved under the PEEF since the launch of the programme seven years ago.

Punjab University Vice-Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran said the PEEF had brought about a revolutionary change in education and hundreds of thousands of students are getting education through this fund.

Judith Herbertson of the UK Aid said that PEEF was playing a very important role in the promotion of education and the UK would continue its cooperation with Punjab for promotion of education.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play

Opinion

Editorial

‘Source of terror’
29 Mar, 2024

‘Source of terror’

ALTHOUGH dealing with the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan is a major political, security and strategic...
Chipping in
29 Mar, 2024

Chipping in

FEDERAL infrastructure development schemes are located in the provinces. Most such projects — for instance,...
Toxic emitters
29 Mar, 2024

Toxic emitters

IT is concerning to note that dozens of industries have been violating environmental laws in and around Islamabad....
Judiciary’s SOS
Updated 28 Mar, 2024

Judiciary’s SOS

The ball is now in CJP Isa’s court, and he will feel pressure to take action.
Data protection
28 Mar, 2024

Data protection

WHAT do we want? Data protection laws. When do we want them? Immediately. Without delay, if we are to prevent ...
Selling humans
28 Mar, 2024

Selling humans

HUMAN traders feed off economic distress; they peddle promises of a better life to the impoverished who, mired in...