Afghanistan signs agreement to send students to LUMS

LAHORE:

Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) to send Afghan students to study in Lahore, according to a report by ‘Voice of America’.

For the first time, Afghanistan will be using its public funds to support its stuents to get higher education abroad.

Former Aghan President Hamid Karzai accused Pakistan of providing safe havens and facilitating Afghan Taliban for cross-border attacks.

With the inauguration of the new President, Pakistan has seen increased security co-operation.

Ghani said that Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, Janan Mosazai, is eager to broaden the new relationship to other areas.

“We want to use the scholarship program as another bridge between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” said the Afghan envoy. The hope is that it will lead to “closer, meaningful, deeper people-to-people relations” between the two countries.

The Afghan government has pledged to spend $1 million to send students to LUMS, which will be further funded by $2 million from the Pakistani government.

The first group of five to 10 Afghan students is expected to arrive in Lahore early this summer. Mosazai expects as many women as men to be part of the group.

Afghanistan expects Pakistan to deliver on its promise of bringing Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table. If that does not happen, Ghani may run out of political capital to be friendly to Pakistan.