SWABI: The Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Swabi, and the Ihsan Trust (IT), Karachi, on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide education to those students who get admission in GIK Institute on merit but cannot afford fees and other charges.

The MoU was inked by Ahsan Basir Sheikh, Pro-Rector (Admin & Finance), and Fayyaz-ur-Rehman Khan, vice president of the trust. The MoU will remain effective for four years initially and it may be renewed by mutual consent.

Briefing the mediapersons, the officials of two organisations said the role of IT was to provide Qarz-i-Hasna (interest-free loan) to the students of GIK Institute. The agreement shall be between the student and IT and GIK Institute will be a facilitator, they stated.

They said the initial selection would be carried out by the GIK Institute and the IT would conduct the final interview and appraisal before entering into the agreement with the student.

The trust would provide the loan facility to any number of students of the GIK Institute who could be accommodated within the total limit per year on purely need-cum-merit basis.

The trust will provide Rs12 million per year and the maximum number of students which can benefit will depend upon the fee structure for different programmes of GIK Institute. The number of students may increase or decrease but the total amount being offered will remain the same, the officials said.

They said payment to GIK Institute would be made after prior approval of the Shariah adviser and founder trustee of Ihsan Trust. If any selected student fails to clear any course, he/she will not be provided loan for the same course for the second time.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2017