Scholarship Cheques Worth Rs 1.8 Mln Distributed Among Expats' Children

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Syed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari Wednesday distributed scholarship cheques worth Rs 1.8 million among 32 deserving and talented children of the expatriate Pakistanis

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Jan, 2019 ) :Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Syed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari Wednesday distributed scholarship cheques worth Rs 1.8 million among 32 deserving and talented children of the expatriate Pakistanis.

Congratulating the students and their parents during a cheque distribution ceremony here, he vowed to extend maximum facilities to overseas Pakistanis who left their families and serve the country by sending their hard-earned money back home.

The SAPM criticized the previous governments for ignoring the Pakistani diaspora working abroad for the betterment of country and expressed his resolve to improve the schooling-housing related facilities for them.

He urged the students to focus on their studies and pledged to extend every possible support to the children of Overseas Pakistanis in this regard.

"Having quality education is a privilege for you and I would recommend you to fully utilize this opportunity," he advised the students.

Encouraging female students for getting higher education and embracing the professions instead of having a degree only, he said, this segment of the society had potential to prove their mettle in different walks of life.

Meanwhile, he appreciated the OPF Managing Director Amir Sheikh for retrieving OPF Valley's 102 Kanals of land from land mafia and said earlier nobody dare to take action against such elements who had challenged the writ of the state.

On the occasion, the OPF MD said the institution was offering the best education facility to the children of Overseas Pakistanis to pursue their education in minimum fees.

The objective of this program was to provide financial assistance to the talented and needy children of Overseas Pakistanis studying here, Amir Sheikh added.

To cater the educational requirement of the children of overseas Pakistanis, he said the OPF had established twenty-four (24) educational institutions across the length and breadth of Pakistan, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir. "These institutions are providing quality education from Pre-Nursery to Graduation level to the children of Overseas Pakistanis and general public", he informed.

The Managing Director said that currently, 19051 students are enrolled in these 24 educational institutions, out of which 3697 are children of overseas Pakistanis. "Children of OPF are given admission throughout the academic year and they are also granted 50% discount in tuition fee", he added.

The MD while highlighting the OPF future endeavours, said the first ever state-of-the-art university would be operational in next year to provide higher education to the OPF's children.

Moreover, the OPF is likely to inaugurate its school at Peshawar in coming April,he informed.

It is pertinent to mention here that OPF under this scholarship program has distributed an amount of more than Rs 30 million among the talented children of Pakistani expatriates so far adding that last year, an amount of Rs. 2,789,850 was distributed among 65 children.