Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan gave need-based scholarships to a batch of 50,000 undergraduate students under the "Ehsaas Undergraduate Scholarship Program", offering them good educational opportunities.

The educational programme was formally launched by Khan on November 4, 2019 under which 200,000 need-based scholarships will be given to undergraduate students belonging to lower and middle income families, in a period of four years, reports Xinhua news agency.

Addressing a ceremony here on Monday to award the scholarships, the premier said that the youth were the greatest asset of his country and he wanted to give them the right direction by providing an access to good education, hoping that the initiative would not only empower the people who otherwise cannot afford the expenses of education, but also help uplift the country itself.

He lamented that only a small number of people in the country had the access to good quality education, while many students from poor families do not get opportunity to make the best use of their intelligence by going to universities.

The number of the need-based scholarships and funds for the higher education will increase when the country's economy gets improved, he added.

The country's Higher Education Commission (HEC) will recommend the students for the government's scholarships, based on their performance.

Regarding the programme, the HEC said on its website that education beyond intermediate is one of the ways to overcome poverty.

"However, access to higher education is itself distributed very unevenly. For example, only 0.4 per cent of the children from the lowest income quintile (from the relevant age cohort) are enrolled in higher education institutions, which is far below the national average of 10 per."