Afghan Girls Among Recipients of Allama Iqbal Scholarships in Pakistan

Photo: X/AmbassadorSadiq

Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan has announced that hundreds of Afghan students have arrived in Pakistan under the third phase of the Allama Iqbal scholarship program.

This program includes free education in various academic fields such as medicine, engineering, computer science, management, agriculture, and social sciences at universities in Pakistan.

Mohammad Sadiq Khan, Pakistan’s Special Representative, wrote on his X page on Friday (27 June) that Afghan girls are also among these students.

This comes as girls’ education at secondary and university levels has been banned in Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

According to Pakistani officials, in the third phase of the program, over 20,000 individuals, including 5,000 girls, had registered for these scholarships.

The second phase of the initiative began in the month of December last year, and in total, around 4,500 full scholarships for undergraduate, master's, and doctoral studies have been allocated to Afghan students over the span of three years.

These scholarships are being offered at a time when the international community, including human rights and education organizations, has repeatedly called for the lifting of educational restrictions on girls in Afghanistan.