KARACHI, April 13: About 50,000 unemployed degree holders who have completed sixteen years education will benefit from the internship programme on which government is spending Rs400 million rupees.

Additional Secretary Establishment Division, Sheikh Naseer ul Haq said this at a press conference on Friday.

He said that through the internship programme each intern will be given Rs10,000 per month stipend during an internship of one year and in the end certificate would be awarded to them according to their performance during the period. The secretary added that a dedicated website was created for the purpose where 60,300 applications were received through emails and 17,000 applications were received by post.

During this exercise government has updated the database of 73,000 personal who have completed 16 years of education, the secretary added.

The secretary said that there is no political motive behind this programme and the placement of interns will be made through merit. He pointed out that internship programme is primarily a training programme, not employment.