Daily Times

KARACHI: The Professional Education Foundation (PEF) launched ‘the PEF-Edhi Scholarship’ on Wednesday with the aim of supporting deserving students.

The scholarship, named after Abdul Sattar Edhi, honours his outstanding humanitarian services towards people in need and strives to help students who are unable to pursue further professional education due to financial constraints.

The Scholarship will be initiated all over Pakistan in 32 universities. News of the initiative will be announced in all associated universities by advertisements on admission boards, social media pages and university websites. The Foundation aims to provide scholarships to a maximum number of needy and bright students, dependent on the funding it would receive from donors.

Addressing the joint press conference, Faisal Edhi, son of Abdul Sattar Edhi, thanked the PEF for coming up with such a noble scheme. He hoped that the scholarship would further enhance the mission of his father who did his utmost to help the needy and the poor in order to build a stronger nation through educating children.

While responding to a question, Faisal Edhi said, “We can take our country to greater heights if we harness the potential of our youth. A simple way to achieve that target is to invest in education at all levels and let the future generation achieve its dreams.”

Introducing the scholarships, PEF Board of Directors Member Dr Saad Khalid Niaz said that the foundation had launched the scholarship program to honour the services of Edhi and recognize his outstanding humanitarian work. “We are proud to launch the PEF-Edhi Scholarship to honour the greatest humanitarian of our times Dr Abdul Sattar Edhi,” he added.

Dr Niaz added that the foundation was funding more than 1200 students in various fields, adding that these students are not only helping their families but are contributing towards society as well.

He noted that as of last month, 282 students had graduated and were holding decent positions in their respective fields. This year another 100 students would graduate from different educational institutions he said. He added that their target was to increase sponsorship from 1200+ to 1700 students and more, dependent on the resources they had.

PEF CEO Shahid Hakim said that the foundation would like to help deserving, brilliant students who could not pursue professional education due to the lack of financial resources. He further said, “Our goal is to transform their lives by providing the funding so that they may achieve their goals and bring a change in their lives.”

The foundation hoped that the programme would receive generous contributions from potential and current donors in order to make this noble cause a big success.