Balochistan (Web Desk) - Senate functional committee on problems of less developed areas in its meeting has recommended increase in number of scholarships specified for students and sportsmen and women from FATA and Balochistan and other less developed areas.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Usman Khan Kakar here at the Parliament House on Friday.
Senator Mir Kabir Ahmed Shahi, Senator JehanzebJamaldini, Senator SardarAzam Khan Musakhel, Senator Nisar Muhammad, Senator SaminaAbid, Senator Gianchand, minister for Inter-provincial Coordination and Secretary Inter-provincial Coordination Raja Nadir Ali attended the meeting.
The meeting held a detailed briefing on the role, working and performance of the ministry of Inter-provincial coordination in less developed areas and FATA during last three years. The committee was briefed in detail about youth exchange cultural programme, PM youth training scheme, quality of education opportunities for students of Balochistan and FATA, scholarships to schedule caste of Tharparkar district, admission of Bugti tribe students in Bawalpur, commonwealth scholarship programme, China government scholarship programme, Pakistan girls guide and boys scouts associations.
The committee asked the ministry to ask the commonwealth and China government to offer around 20 more scholarships for FATA and Balochistan in addition to the already offered 49 and 100 scholarships annually by commonwealth and China respectively.
The committee after hearing about the steps taken for promotion of football in less developed areas, asked for establishing at least five football stadiums in Balochistan in Chaman, Loralai, Nushki, Khuzdar and Kalat for promotion of the sport.
The chairman of the committee noted that football players from Balochistan have always outshone players from other areas and they should be given more opportunities to enhance their skill. The committee also recommended to start a football league following PSL. The committee also recommended to include sports as a compulsory part of School and college education and asked for it to be a marked activity.
While talking about other programmes for less developed areas, the committee recommended to enhance the internship salaries for less developed areas to 20,000 from 12,000. The committee also recommended to increase two times the number of interns for the next year and increase the upper age limit to 30 from 28 for students of less developed areas. It also asked for increasing the number of delegates from less developed areas on youth exchange cultural programme.