Daily Times

The federal budget worth more than Rs 9,000 billion for the fiscal year 2022-23 unveiled on Friday by Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail in the National Assembly (NA) in which more than Rs 44.17 billion has been allocated for the development budget of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for various projects.

According to the budget documents, the government allocated Rs 5 billion for 13 new projects of different kinds in the budget while over Rs. 38.72 billion has been allocated for the 131 projects already underway. The documents stated that Rs 5 billion 90 crore would be spent on 25 ongoing development projects while Rs 1 billion 249 million to be allocated for 9 new development projects in the federal education sector.

As per documents, there are 134 other projects including Rs 10 billion for campuses, Rs 12 billion for sub-campuses of public school universities and Rs 10 billion for 3,000 Allama Muhammad Iqbal Scholarships for the Afghan Taliban. “During the same period, 13 new development projects of HEC have included Rs. 15 billion for provision of lab facilities in five leading engineering universities of the country, Rs. 15 billion for Youth Laptop Scheme and 11 other small projects”, it added.

Moreover, a total of Rs 7.23 billion has been allocated in the federal education and technical training development budget. On the other hand, as per documents, the Ministry of Education released a total of 25 development projects in the financial year 23-2022 including Rs 150 million for 1600 children of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, 200 for the construction of new graduate block of National College of Arts, Lahore and Rs 50 million, 200 million for construction of Directorate General of Religions Affair, Rs 100 million for construction of Federal College of Home Economics in F-11 and Rs 47 million for College Boys in G-13 to Islamabad as well as Rs 68 million for establishment of Model College for Boys in G-15, Rs 30 million for establishment of Boys College in Margalla Town, Rs 106 million for establishment of National Curriculum Council, Rs 500 million for PREP project on infectious diseases. Rs 3000 million for the Prime Minister’s Skill for All Catalyst for Tuition Sector project, Rs 382 million for the provision of basic facilities in federal educational institutions, Rs 500 million for code restoration project and other projects. Rs 144 million for the recruitment of 200 computer teachers in women’s educational institutions in the financial year 2022-23, Rs 1000 million for the establishment of 250 vocational training institutes and Rs 102 million allocated for two other projects.