‘Pakistan to have first fee-free varsity’

Pakistan’s first fee-free university will be established soon by a non-governmental organisation, which is also running the largest interest-free micro-financing programme in the country, said executive director of the Akhuwat Pakistan, Dr Muhammad Amjad Saqib on Saturday. 

He was speaking as the keynote speaker at a moot titled “Dialogue on success and challenges in CSR” organised by the National Forum for Environment and Health.

He said the Akhuwat Pakistan had given interest-free loans amounting to Rs30 billion to 1.5 million to needy people across the country during the last 15 years.

“Now, the organisation is going to establish the first ever fee-free university in the country.

Discussing administrative policies of the varsity, Dr Saqib said the students would not be asked to submit any fee immediately.

“We will make our students promise to pay their fee after 10 years when they will be in a position to pay it back,” he said.

The Akhuwat Pakistan under its drive to establish its own university had already established an institute of research in science and technology in Faisalabad, he added, which was initially offering a B Sc (Hons) programme in biotechnology.

Dr Saqib informed the audience that the interest-free loan programme of the Akhuwat Pakistan had the recovery ratio of 99.9 percent as 70 percent beneficiaries of the micro-financing network after launching their small businesses had enrolled to becoming contributors to the fund raising efforts for the THE loan scheme.

“Such beneficiaries of the programme contributed Rs150 million for the loan services of the Akhuwat Pakistan.”

Dr Saqib also informed that the organisation recently had launched its loan programme in Sindh by establishing its first branch in the Lyari area that was otherwise considered a dangerous area for doing such kind of activities.

“The organisation helped launch 2,000 small businesses in the Lyari area.”

He said that people who got loans through the micro-financing scheme had been able to launch their small service-oriented businesses like motor mechanic, plumbing, tailoring, electrician, and masonry works.

“We don’t provide them fish but teach them how to fish for rest of their life,” said Dr Saqib.

He said there were around 25,000 beneficiaries of the loan scheme of the Akhuwat Pakistan in Gilgit and Baltistan areas as all of them had been asked to plant at least one fruit bearing tree in their native area in order to help their own economy and contribute towards improvement of environment.