LAHORE – The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and Afghan government have signed an MoU to set up the Afghanistan Scholarship Programme (ASP), which was announced by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani during his visit to Islamabad in 2014.
The Afghan government has allocated an initial fund of $ 1 million for this program, which will be complemented by an additional amount of $ 2 million announced for the programme by the Government of Pakistan.
Ambassador of Afghanistan Janan Mosazai and LUMS Vice Chancellor Dr S Sohail H Naqvi represented LUMS signed the Memorandum of Understanding. The ASP is an exclusive scholarship for talented Afghan students to study at LUMS in its graduate and undergraduate programmes. The ASP will provide scholarships to Afghan students who are admitted on merit.
Ambassador Mosazai said, “I am delighted to sign this agreement today that establishes a special scholarship program for talented Afghan students to study at LUMS, one of our region’s top centres of excellence. Developing our human resources in all fields constitutes a key pillar of HE President Ashraf Ghani’s vision for a peaceful, prosperous and self-reliant Afghanistan.”
He said, “It is a showcase moment for the whole world to see how two neighbouring countries can collaborate for betterment of each other. This scholarship scheme is extremely important as fresh new minds from Afghanistan will bring fresh concepts and challenges for our students and faculty at LUMS. This is an opportunity to work jointly that will bring young students as Afghan ambassadors to Pakistan and when they go back to Afghanistan they will be Pakistan’s ambassadors in their own country. This programme will bring the two countries together the way they used to be.”
