ISLAMABAD: As many as 100 scholarships in law education will be provided to the youth of Balochistan by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in an attempt to remove the shortage of lawyers in the province.

A suicide attack in 2016 left over 60 lawyers dead in Quetta, casting a negative impact on the judicial system.

“The HEC will provide 100 scholarships to the graduates from Balochistan in law education as the Central Development Working Party a few days ago approved the project worth Rs448.735 million,” said a statement issued by the commission.

It said 15-20pc of the scholarships would be reserved for children of families of the 2016 Quetta blast victims. A spokesperson for the HEC said 50 scholarships would be for the five-year LLB and 10 for LLM. These students will study in Pakistani universities while 30 students from the province will be sent abroad for LLM and 10 others for pursuing PhD studies.

In order to ensure fair execution of the project, HEC has constituted a steering committee, comprising the executive director, HEC, the provincial secretary education and representatives from Pakistan Bar Council, Quetta. The scholarships will be awarded on open merit.

Last year, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had announced the award of law scholarships during his visit to Balochistan.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2018