*KARACHI:* The Higher Education Commission (HEC) would provide 100scholarships to graduates from Balochistan in law education, as the CentralDevelopment Working Party (CDWP) approved the project worth Rs 448.735million.
Under the project, 50 five-year LLB and 10 LLM scholarships would beawarded to Baloch students to study in Pakistani universities, while 30Baloch students would be sent abroad for LLM and 10 Baloch students topursue PhD studies. In order to ensure fair execution of the project, HECconstituted a steering committee comprising of HEC executive director,provincial education secretary and representatives from Pakistan BarCouncil, Quetta. The scholarships would be awarded on open merit tostudents of Balochistan who intend to opt for law as a profession.
In 2017, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had announced the award of lawscholarships during his visit to Balochistan in the wake of the tragicincident of Civil Hospital, Quetta in 2016 which led to the death of 60lawyers.
The incident had wiped out a whole generation of senior lawyers and castedserious negative impact on the entire judicial system. It created a seriousshortage of qualified lawyers in the province. Under the project, 15-20 percent scholarships would be reserved for children from the families that hadbecome victim of Civil Hospital, Quetta blast.