ISLAMABAD, Aug 10: Thousands of students could not apply for around 1,800 indigenous scholarships (MPhil leading to PhD) of Higher Education Commission (HEC) as they could not download application form from its website which stopped working due to heavy traffic.

The last date to submit application for the scholarships was August 7.The students who waited for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) test, which held on August 5, were the real sufferers as they wanted to make use of their processing fee which they had to deposit in the HEC for the scholarship.

Umer Hashmi, a student, while talking to Dawn said that it was a requirement that candidates should get at least 50 per cent marks in Graduate Record Examination (GRE) otherwise they could not be entitled for the scholarship.

“If students have a hunch during the test that they will get 50 per cent marks in the GRE then they apply for the scholarship and deposit the processing fee,” he said.

“I did not apply before GRE test because otherwise my processing fee would have gone waste. So I decided to apply after the GRE test,” he said.

“While I was giving test, there were so many students who also told me that they will apply if they have good GRE test,” he said.

Anees Ahmed, another candidate said: “I was satisfied with GRE test, so I decided to apply but website of the HEC jammed as a result of which they could neither apply for registration nor download the application form.”

Hashmi said that after failing to get registration till August 8, he went to the HEC and contacted its project manager Baqir Hasnain who refused to entertain him saying last date for registration has expired and he should try next time.

“Most of the students cannot afford to do MPhil through their finances so they wait for the scholarships of the HEC. It is the second phase of scholarships and don’t know if the HEC will announce those scholarships again,” he said.