Daily Times

The Sindh government has granted scholarships to 3,100 students of religious minorities in the province in order to extend them financial assistance to get education.

These scholarships were awarded from 2018 to 2020 on the basis of need-cum-merit criterion in view of the financial status of the family of the applicant. The Sindh government in the last two years has spent around Rs 46 million to dispense these scholarships. Students of the public sector universities in the province have been mostly the beneficiaries of these scholarships. Some of the scholarships are also given to the students of the government-run schools and colleges. The students enrolled in the privately run educational institutions are not eligible for this scheme.

The Sindh government’s Department of Minorities’ Affairs dispenses these scholarships. In his statement, Sindh Minister for Minorities’ Affairs Hari Ram Kishori Lal said that these scholarships were awarded on the meritorious basis to help out the students of minority communities for continuance of their education and to enable them to contribute to the cause of national development.

The application form and relevant information for the award of such new scholarships for the current financial year 2020-21 could be obtained from the website of the Sindh Minorities’ Affairs Departments. This year the department aims to dispense around 2,000 such scholarships.

The minorities affairs’ minister said that the Sindh government had been acting on the vision of the leaders of the ruling Pakistan Peoples’ Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Asif Ali Zardari to grant opportunities of quality higher education to the youth of the religious minorities in Sindh.

He said that award of these scholarships amply showed that the Sindh government of PPP fully believed in promoting the concepts of religious tolerance and inter-faith harmony in the province.

The Minorities’ Affairs Department of the Sindh government was established as a separate entity in 2010 after it was separated from the Department of Religious Affairs.

The functions performed by the department include financial assistance, award of scholarships, medical treatment, marriage dowry assistance for deserving families of the religious minorities, repair and maintenance of the worship and important places of the minority communities in Sindh.