WE are PhD and masters students studying in China under the cultural exchange scholarship programme of the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC Division) sent in September 2011.
The IPC was bound to pay $400 to students of PhD and $300 to masters students a month as subsidy plus the return air ticket in addition to the monthly stipend paid by the Chinese government, which is in fact a very small amount.
When we were finally selected for the said scholarship, the IPC had made excuses that our budget was not yet approved and asked us to buy our tickets and join universities. The IPC had assured us that it would start funding continuously within six months. Now, after more than seven months, the IPC is still making lame excuses when we ask them about the matter.
We are facing hardships in meeting our basic necessities of life in China. Let aside the research expenditure because the monthly stipend paid by the Chinese government is not sufficient.
We belong to poor families which cannot afford our expenditure. Under such circumstances, it is getting really hard for us to concentrate on our studies and research.
We request the government of Pakistan to help us so that we may concentrate on our studies and complete our degrees in time.
Adeel Iftikhar, Muhammad Saleem Shahzad, Sadia Akram and Tasmia Khanum
Wuhan, China