Pakistan To Award 4,500 Scholarships To Afghan Students

Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan's special representative for Afghanistan, announced that the second phase of the Allama Iqbal Scholarships programme for Afghan students has begun.

On Friday, January 10, he said that 4,500 full scholarships will be awarded to Afghan students in the fields of medicine, engineering, agriculture and other fields.

The programme will offer 4,500 full scholarships at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels over the next three years.

The special representative of Pakistan added that 33% of these scholarships will be allocated to female students.

The Pakistani official wrote in a note on his account on social media platform X that the programme is the largest and most popular foreign scholarship for Afghan students.

Mohammad Sadiq emphasised that the registration and exam process for this scholarship is online and will be completed within 45 days.

This month, he said, more than 22,000 applicants will take an online exam, followed by interviews for final selection. He said that the entire process would be completed within 45 days.

The decision has been announced by Pakistan at a time when girls and women in Afghanistan are facing severe restrictions from the Taliban.

Since coming to power, the Taliban has banned girls' education at secondary and university levels and banned women from working in many institutions, including non-governmental and international organisations.