LAHORE: The federal government will provide funds for payment of fees and hostel charges of Baloch students.

This was decided at a meeting presided over by Governor/Chancellor Balighur Rehman at the Governor House here on Thursday.

The meeting was convened to discuss the issue of payment of fees of Baloch students studying in various universities of the Punjab. Federal Minister for Education Rana Tanveer Hussain, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Agha Hasan Baloch , Federal Secretary Education Aamir Ashraf Khawaja, Senators Yaqoob Nasir, Senator Humayun Kurd and Lashkari Raisani, and Vice Chancellor of Islamia University, Bahawalpur, Dr. Athar Mehboob were present in the meeting.

The meeting decided that the problems of fee and accommodation in hostels of Baloch students studying in universities of Punjab would be solved immediately. “In this regard, the federal ministry of education will provide funds for the payment of student fees and allotments will be made to the students in the hostels without any discrimination according to merit and policy,” it decided.

The governor said that he would soon meet a delegation of Baloch students as well.

Mr Rehman said that in 2013 during the tenure of PML-N, Baloch students studying in various universities of Punjab were given fully-funded scholarships under the educational package. He said the number of Baloch students enrolled in Ph.D and Mphil programmes had almost doubled at that time. However, recently the Baloch students were protesting due to the suspension of payment of 50 per cent of fees by the Punjab government, he said.

He said Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif had taken notice of this and directed the authorities concerned to resolve the issue immediately.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2022