QUETTA - The Rs1.2 billion Prime Minister’s Fee Reimbursement Scheme for the Less Developed Areas was launched Wednesday.
Speaking on the occasion, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar expressed the government's resolve to bring in betterment.
The Finance Minister said on the directive of the Prime Minister, various schemes have been launched to ensure education of the children in less-privileged areas. He said overall, 33,440 students of 59 districts of the country will be benefited from the scheme and will be able to get quality education. He said the scheme will continue during the tenure of present government.
He said overall six schemes are being launched for youth which are Microfinance Scheme (Qarz-e-Hasna) to the underprivileged students and provision of laptops besides expanding Skilled Development and Youth Business Loan programs.
He said the government believes in providing equal opportunities to all citizen, therefore special attention is being laid on the development of education sector in Balochistan.
Finance Minister, Muhammad Ishaq Dar who was the chief guest distributed cheques of fees among the students of less developed areas.
Earlier, Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Malik Baloch said provincial government has imposed educational emergency in the province to ensure education of over 2.2 million children.
He said the provincial government will distribute over 8.3 million books among the students free of cost in the province. He said the government is committed to remove bottle necks in the education system and further improve it for expediting socio-economic development in the province.
The scheme is aimed at encouraging talented students of the less developed areas in their pursuit of higher education by reimbursing the hundred per cent educational expenses of the post-graduate students undertaking Masters, MPhill and PhD level degrees.
The students doing post graduate studies from a Higher Education Commission's approved public sector educational institutions and domiciled in interior Sindh, Southern Punjab, Balochistan, less developed areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA are eligible.