Sustainable Student Loan Programme: meeting of Steering Committee held at HEC

A meeting of the Steering Committee under Student Loan Programme was held at Higher Education Commission (HEC) Secretariat, to design a model for development of a sustainable Student Loan Programme in Pakistan. Dr Javaid R. Laghari, Chairperson HEC, presided over the meeting, said a press release issued here on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended by Dr Sohail Naqvi, Executive Director, HEC, Dr Saeeda Asadullah, Vice Chancellor, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Mahmood Shafqat, Additional Director, Banking Policy and Regulation, State Bank of Pakistan, Aamir Mahmood, Deputy Secretary (Finance), Shamim Iqbal, Vice President, Student Loan Scheme Wing, National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Ghulam Mujtaba Kayani, Director General (Finance) HEC, and Khawaja Zahid Hussain, SAP/BAS Co-ordinator.
The Committee discussed the modalities for designing and development of the draft, in compliance with the Directive of the President of Pakistan to develop a sustainable Student Loan Programme. The main focus was to prepare the policy document acceptable to all stakeholders to provide the opportunity of higher education to all the needy students.
The Committee discussed different proposals on ie whether Government will be able to provide the seed money of five billion rupees or endowment fund at initial stage, how the risk will be shared/covered, what will be the interest rate charged by the commercial banks as well as queries about the payback period.