July 25, 2019
Pakistan’s development assistance to Afghanistan has reached around US$1 billion. The country’s development assistance is geared towards investment in infrastructure, education, health, agriculture and capacity building of Afghan professionals. Islamabad aims to continue providing assistance to Afghanistan in different fields for capacity building of Afghan institutions and professionals so that they contribute to the betterment of their people.
In the wake, Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Shehryar Khan Afridi on July 24, 2019, during his visit to Afghanistan, inaugurated a Pakistan-funded state-of-the-art hospital in Logar province. Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the minister said that the 100-bed Nayeb Aminullah Hospital was a gift from the people of Pakistan for their Afghan brethren. The state-of-the-art Nayeb Aminullah Hospital was built by the Pakistan government at a cost of $18 million.
Logar province is one of Afghanistan’s most ethnically diverse provinces with having 60% Pashtun majority and 40% remaining Hazara’s and Tajiks. The province also saw one of the worst insurgent attacks which claimed hundreds of lives.
The foundation for this hospital was laid 10 years ago and work on its construction was stopped due to some problems, but it was built as a result of national Unity Government efforts and today it is inaugurated, said Afghan Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz. In recent months, Pakistan had also setup Jinnah Hospital in Kabul and another health facility – Nishtar Kidney Center in Jalalabad – is set to be inaugurated soon.
Meanwhile, Afridi said that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is interested to extend all possible assistance to the Afghan people to facilitate their travel to Pakistan and also to promote trade between the two nations. He also said that Pakistan will train 440 Afghan doctors and allied medical staff that has been requested by the Afghan government.
Besides that, under Pakistan sponsored capacity building projects for Afghan healthcare professionals, 59 Afghan medical professionals including doctors, nurses, and technicians successfully completed their training in 2017. In addition, 42 Afghan healthcare professionals will start training at Institute of Kidney Diseases Peshawar.
On the special occasion, the Afghan officials expressed their gratitude for the generous gift and praised Pakistan’s assistance in the health sector.
In parallel, Islamabad, as part of its contribution towards the socio-economic development and generating opportunities for Afghan youth, announced several thousand scholarships for Afghan students earlier this year, who are interested to study in the educational institutions across Pakistan. President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi announced another 3000 fresh scholarships – under Allama Iqbal Scholarship Program – to facilitate the growing demand from Afghans, wishing to pursue their studies here. This was a sequel to the first round of scholarships, worth tens of millions of rupees.
The Government of Pakistan through Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan, launched the Allama Iqbal Scholarship program for 3000 Afghan students in 2016 which includes undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate studies programs. Out of which 750 scholarships were awarded in the year 2017; comprising 600 for undergraduate students, 120 for medical, and 100 plus for engineering and other disciplines. HEC also wish to expand the number of scholarships for Masters and PhD Degrees. Scholarships for Masters and PhD will be awarded to faculty members on the request of the Ministry of Education of Afghanistan to enhance their capacity. As part of this scholarship program, the Ministry of Education in Afghanistan requested for 100 scholarships exclusively for females, based on regional representation, to which HEC already agreed.
Moreover, according to some rough estimates, some 50 to 55 thousand doctors, engineers, Information Technology (IT) experts, trained by Pakistan are already serving in Afghanistan. 6000 fresh graduates, masters and Phd Afghans are being added to Afghanistan’s job market annually.
Afghan Studies Center (ASC) hopes that these positive overtures would serve as connectors between the two neighbors, for enhancing people to people contact and improvement in bilateral relations.
