KABUL – Pakistan government has offered 600 scholarships for the current academic year (2012-2013) for the Afghan students to study in different disciplines in the prominent educational institutions, professional colleges and universities of Pakistan. Pakistan has been offering fully-funded scholarships since 2009 under "the Prime Minister of Pakistan's 2000 Scholarships Scheme for Afghan Students".

The Embassy of Pakistan held a written test on Saturday and the successful candidates would be able to benefit from the scheme to study in the educational institutions of Pakistan. All the expenses of the students including tuition fee, boarding and lodging, travelling to and from Afghanistan will be born by the Pakistani government.

About 1500 Afghan student are already benefiting from this scheme. It may be mentioned that over thirty thousand Afghan nationals have graduated from Pakistan Universities and Professional colleges in the last three decades who now play active role in the reconstruction and socio-economic development of their country.

Keeping in view the vital educational requirements of Afghanistan, the Government of Pakistan offers the scholarships to Afghan students in the fields of Medicine, Engineering, Information Technology, Business Administration, Agriculture, Economics, Natural Sciences and Teaching.

Pakistan attaches utmost significance to the development of education in Afghanistan and would further increase the number of scholarships in the years to come. The present scheme of scholarships program, indeed, would go a long way in promoting education in Afghanistan as well as people-to-people contacts between the two neighboring countries. (PR)