
Senators seek transparency in awarding scholarships abroad
The upper house of parliament
adopted on Friday recommendations for
making the process of awarding foreign
scholarships to Pakistani students more
transparent.
The Senate special committee had
submitted its report on the issue of the
lapse of various scholarships offered by
different countries to the students of
Pakistan brought up by Senator
Mushahid Hussain Syed way back in
July.
Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani then
formed a special committee with the
mandate to deliberate on the issue and
report back within two months.
Since the necessary data from the
various ministries was not available, the
committee requested extension in the
time period to submit its report.
The committee gathered figures from the
Federal Education and Professional
Training Ministry, Higher Education
Commission (HEC), Economic Affairs
Division (EAD) and Foreign Affairs
Ministry on the foreign scholarships
offered to Pakistan students.
The record presented by the institutions
showed that in most cases, the HEC,
which advertises the scholarships, causes
some delays and after scrutiny of
candidates, the list of nominees is sent
back to the ministry concerned, which
then transmits the names to the donor
agencies.
The Senate committee reported the major
fault in the delay leading to lapse of
certain scholarships was the lack of
coordination among various ministries
and the HEC. With properly defined
standard operating procedures, the
whole process required a single point of
responsibility to turn into an expeditious
system, the committee stated in the
report.
The panel underlined there should be a
focal ministry that keeps a watch on the
whole process, monitors the data, sends
the same to the HEC and expedites the
process of sending the successful
nominations back to donor agencies.
The committee observed the most
appropriate ministry to be the focal
ministry was the Federal Education and
Professional Training Ministry. The HEC
is also associated with the said ministry
and the question of scholarship pertains
to this ministry.
The committee recommended the
government should communicate to all
donor agencies that nomination of
foreign scholarships be sent to the
education and professional training
ministry so that inordinate delays and
unnecessary red-tape is avoided.
Expressing satisfaction with the
proceedings of the committee and the
government’s response, Senator
Mushahid said there should be a
dedicated website with information on
scholarships so that anyone in Pakistan
can have access to it.
Senator Saeed Mandokhel suggested
reserving a quota for smaller provinces
such as Balochistan and Khyber-
Pakhtunkhwa to encourage youth from
these areas. He added that a website for
this process could help make the process
more transparent.
Senator Noman Wazir also endorsed the
idea of reserving provincial quotas for
foreign scholarships.
Rabbani lamented the Article 27 proviso,
which deals with quota, had lapsed in
2013. “The callous attitude of the
government can be seen from the fact
that the bill is still pending in the
National Assembly. For the time being,
there is no constitutional cover to the
question of quota,” he said.
The Senate has constantly reminded and
pleaded with the government to get the
bill passed from the assembly but it vain,
he added.