What started as a well-intentioned scheme to help students pursuing higher education in Pakistan has failed in many ways.
The Prime Minister’s Laptop Scheme (formerly CM’s laptop scheme) has now become a program that is being abused by most stake holders, seriously impacting the intentions behind the entire scheme and uptake of education at higher levels.
We take a look at how much this scheme is been abused, and how it has affected the educational bottom line in Pakistan.
Students & PM Laptops Scheme
According to the promotional content that comes with the scheme, laptops given through it are supposed to be used for educational purposes and are intended to help students in improving their studies.
The laptops were envisioned to “bring a paradigm shift in the current education and research culture in the country”.
Only students that score good grades and are just starting their higher education can apply for a laptop through the scheme.
As mentioned earlier, students need to apply themselves in order to get laptops through this scheme. They need to create a profile and the application needs to be approved by the university. Following that, the student is selected or refused based on their CGPA.
However, even though students get these laptops for their studies (the sole purpose of the scheme), it has been observed that many of them sell their laptops as soon as they get them.
Which begs the question, “Why get the laptop at all?”
Laptops on Sale
According to the terms and conditions of the scheme, the receiver of a laptop is not allowed to sell any of the gifted assets. The image below is from the online form a student fills and accepts before applying for a laptop.
A brief search on OLX shows several laptops from the PM’s Laptop Scheme on sale. Take a look at some of them below:
As you can see, most laptops are being sold for between Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 30,000. A little bargaining can reduce the price by up 2-3K according to some users.
Head over to Hafeez Centre, Dubai Plaza or PakGamers and you will see several more laptops from PM’s scheme on sale.
Putting aside reasons of commercial interest aside, the students are essentially violating the agreement that they entered into the day they got these laptops. They were never meant to be sold off for few thousands only.
By violating these contracts, students lose the right to call the government corrupt no matter which political party they support.
Additionally, if students do not require these laptops, they should not apply to get one. By getting these laptops, they are depriving someone who actually needs them (but can’t afford it) of their legitimate right.
It also wastes the government’s efforts and money on non-deserving students. At the very least, these students should give these laptops to those who need them.
Simply getting one to sell is the equivalent of fraud.
PM’s Laptop Scheme Or A Vote Buying Scheme?
PM’s Laptop Scheme has often been criticized for being a front to buy out the youth by giving them free laptops.
Schemes like these also seem to be a gateway to make good headlines.
Why not offer students scholarships and discount their fees, the aspect which really matters to someone who is needy and is facing trouble in funding for his higher studies.
If someone is already scoring a high CGPA, does he/she really need a laptop or do they need support and better educational facilities to improve their capabilities?
Governments throughout the world encourage students with incentives. Usually, it is some sort of a scholarship which actually helps the student. Subsidizing university fees, funding for advanced and latest lab equipment should be the government’s focus if they want to uplift the educational standards of the country.
If the government really wants to promote education, it should offer scholarships to talented and needy students. More practical solutions can be explored.
Laptop Scheme & Corruption
To further add insult to injury, the laptops scheme has been plagued by corruption allegations since its inception. There have been reports on its corruption and mismanagement in the past as well.
Here are some of them:
Rs. 2 billion lost, in laptops scheme due to unknown reasons
Back in 2014, detailed report of Auditor General’s office revealed that laptop prices received sudden price hike from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 37,950 without any change in specifications or hardware.
This caused a loss of Rs. 2 billion to the national exchequer due to “unknown” reasons. Another Rs. 2 billion were diverted from School Education Department to Higher Education Department’s laptop scheme violating the rules.
Contractor given special favors, Rs. 1.6 billion paid before fulfillment of order
Furthermore, public officials managing the scheme gave “special” favors to the contractor, violating the contract in the process. On five occasions, a total of Rs. 1.6 billion was debited from the national treasury before receiving any of the ordered laptops.
Rs. 22 million paid in fake excise duty
Special Excise Duty is exempted on computer hardware including laptops. However, the contractor was paid Rs. 200 per laptop (1%) as excise duty without any reasons.
What’s more interesting is that due to the price hike, even if the excise duty was to be paid, it should have been Rs. 302. This alone caused a loss of Rs. 22 million.
Rs. 140 million not recovered from contractor
The government was due to collect advance income tax at a rate of 3.5% of the Rs.4.1 billion paid to the contractor. That tax of Rs. 140 million was never deducted or recovered from the contractor M/S Inbox.
Rs. 31 million not recovered as late delivery charges
According to the contract, late delivery of laptops would be fined at a rate of 2% in liquidated damages. However, 80,000 laptops were delivered late yet only Rs 14 million of the Rs 45 million were recovered.
Rs. 11 million lost due to irregular taxation
The Higher Education Department is exempt from paying any excise duty, advance tax or sales tax, yet Rs. 102 per laptop were paid to the contractor in the shape of “other taxes/duties” causing damages of Rs. 11 million.
Furthermore, the law prevents public universities from incurring any expenditure unless approved beforehand. Yet Rs. 1 million in distribution ceremonies and Rs. 28 million in distribution charges were incurred by certain institutions.
There have also been official reports of hundreds of laptops being allocated to students without considering the eligibility criteria.
More corruption revealed
Recently, another news story has popped up on several news agencies claiming that wide scale irregularities have been witnessed in the laptop scheme yet again. Relatively newer phases of the scheme are yet to be investigated which might reveal similar news keeping the trend in notice.
Final Words
The laptop scheme has its fair share of critics and admirers. However the facts have been provided here to better inform readers about making their own conclusions regarding the PM Laptop Scheme.
In short, the students are violating their contracts and selling their laptops, the government isn’t focusing on education to practically improve the educational system, the laptops scheme fails in its envisioned aim of helping the needy and talented students,.
Moreover with corruption scandals popping up regularly through the government’s accountant general’s official reports, perhaps the stakeholders need to go back to the drawing board and chart out a program that raises education standards all across the country in real essence.
1 Education system is enough.
Govt. / Private colleges, O Level, A Level, coaching system etc are not good.
If they are loyal then make Universal education system.
What next? 1 medical system? 1 party government system? 1 automobile manufacturer permitted only?
Competition certainly can makes things better.
there is good reason for ONE HOLY QURAN for all humanity.
competition can not applied to Education
competition lays foundation of development .
agreed but in education it does not apply
Even your Holy Quran has to compete against 2000 other religions. :)
but as Muslim u do not have to read all religions or books etc just one BOOK
As a Muslim we can chose only one book which is holy Quran, not one out of hundreds. But as a Muslims we can study other religions’ books. Do your statement doesn’t apply.
In education system we are producing Urdu medium vs English medium, elite class schools vs poor’s, school vs madrasa.
unable to get your point .
what i am trying to make point is that if we want to develop as an nation then we must enforce a single education system .
we can not diversify education.
there must not be elite or english medium or madrasa just one govt education system for all and rest should be null and void
What does Quran have to do with education? Do you think someone who knows Quran needs no more education?
And since you raised issue of one Quran, why don’t you explain why there is more than one interpretation of verses?
there is difference in knowing and understanding
Quran is addressed to man kind
different interpretations mean different views of different human
like if you ask bunch of people to describe a scene in front of them while standing on top of mountain every one will describe same view in different prospective….
if you have some info about DNA the genetic material
its just ladder for codes but it can produce any living creature if u know the proper quantity and code for it .
same applies to knowing and understanding
Okay, but what does any of it have to do with “1 education system”?
Easy example: even in one classroom of grade IV students you can find some students who are better studiers and some students are worse — not because they don’t try but because not everyone has equal intelligence. Science even tells us about problems like dyxlexia that make it harder for some students to read properly.
So why should ALL of them be forced to go through the same education system?
You seems like a “rehri wala” who never get into the detail and start crying. Did you ask what are the flaws? And are an educated person from Pak institutes know what is the system? Or you are a part of this corrupt system too?
Why should I ask? I think I know the flaws very well. Even in rich countries where public schools are better than Pakistani private schools, there are still private schools for many different reasons.
If I live in Pakistan then by definition I am part of this corrupt system because the ENTIRE system is corrupt. Except maybe NGO like TCF but even then you can find someone to accuse them of something.
The systems like O/A levels, coaching etc. would not have emerged and became popular if there was 1 Good Working Educational system. No parent enjoys paying 10 times more fees for their children. We are forced to go for alternatives. When govt. institutions Fail, private institutions take advantage and fill the gap.
Your though is nice, but it is totally impractical for us under the circumstances.
Parents feel proud when their son or daughter speaks English fluently. Unfortunately this breed is mostly atheist as a fashion, have a set of topics to discuss as otherwise they fear being exposed as desi.
It’s sad that the up coming generation (students) are corrupt and selling the laptops as well.
They need scholarships, jobs, money for education. Students aren’t corrupt its government who aren’t investing in education system to make it better.
We need a better education system a bloody laptop cannot fulfill our fee or educational expenses.
But then can a laptop fulfill educational expenses? How much an engineering or medical student of public university pays? It’s already highly discounted, Pakistan is 2nd most cheapest when it comes to fees. I personally know daughter of a security guard, she didn’t sell her laptop and graduated recently, but I also know son of a family friend who sold it for partying.
Matter of different choices and opinions but seriously why not government spent money on announcing scholarships program rather than investing on these cheap build laptops?
So does that mean you should take multiple laptops and start selling them? I completely agree the government is corrupt and doesn’t spend money on public welfare but we should also look at ourselves on what we’re doing at our part.. the only difference is ‘Ek bara chor hai aur doosra chota chor’..
I have no problem at all with corrupt politicians or political parties. You know why? Because I AM A CORRUPT citizen, So are rest of the citizens. We all do corruption at capacity that we own.
If you do corruption of 20 Rupees, Rest assure that your Govt. Will do corruption of 20 Trillions.
میں اردو میں آپکی بات کا جواب دینا چاہوں گا کیوں کہ میں اردو میں اپنے خیالات بہتر بیان کر سکتا ہوں۔
آپکی بات ایک حد تک درست ہے، کہ شہری کرپٹ ہیں تو گورنمنٹ بھی کرپٹ ہے لیکن ایک چیک اینڈ بیلنس نظام بھی تو ہوتا ہے، شہری اگر کرپٹ ہیں تو اسکو روکنا کس کا کام ہے؟ شہری تو ہر ملک میں کرپٹ ہوتے ہیں، کم یا زیادہ یہ الگ بات ہے۔ ہر ملک میں چوریاں ہوتی ہیں، غبن ہوتے ہیں، گورنمنٹ کے فنڈز یا بڑی بڑی کارپوریشن کے فنڈ اوپر کی سطح پر بیٹھے لوگ کرپشن کر کے اپنی جیب میں ڈالتے ہیں لیکن دنیا کے اچھے ممالک میں عدالتی نظام مضبوط ہوتا ہے، کرپشن کو پکڑا جاتا ہے، کرپٹ آدمی کو سزا دی جاتی ہے، چوری شدہ رقوم واپس وصول کی جاتی ہیں۔ لیکن ہمارے ملک میں ایسا نظام بہت کمزور ہے۔ طاقتور افراد چوری کرتے ہیں پھر ان کو پکڑنا یا عدالت میں ان پر جرم ثابت کرنا دنیا کا مشکل ترین کام ہے۔ اس لیے اس نظام کو ٹھیک کرنا حکومت پر ہی عائد ہوتا ہے
True
اردو کا جواب اردو میں
میرے بھائی آپ کی بات درست ہے. مگر مسئلہ یہ ہے کہ ہم لوگ احتساب تو چاہتے ہیں مگرصرف دوسروں کا. قانون کی بالا دستی تو چاہتے ہیں, مگر خود استثنا کی بھی خواہش رکھتے ہیں.
چوری کریں ہم اور امید حکومت سے رکھیں کے اتنی سختی کر دے کہ کوئی چوری نہ کر سکے.
جن ممالک کی آپ مثال دے رہے ہیں وہاں لوگ ایک دوسرے کے ساتھ لین دین میں تو 2 نمبری کر لیتے ہیں, مگر جہاں بات اپنے ملک کی ہو وہاں ایسا سوچتے بھی نہیں. جبکہ ہمارے ہاں الٹ ہو رہا ہے.
Bilkul behtreen jawab dia. Ab hukumat PTI ki ho, PMLN ki, PPP ki ya dunya k kisi corruption free mulk ki koi party aa k bhi Pakistan mein govt. bana le wo bhi iss type ki corruption ko nhi rok skti k logo ko govt. ki trf se dia gya laptop sale krne se rok sakay. Ab kia aik alag department bnaya jae jo her Waqt OLX ko check krta rahe?
Ye kam govt. k nahi thori c sharam, Zinda Zameer or mulk or Qoum ki izat k ehsas se hotay hain.
Zabardast, +1
A question, your dad follows you to University or college everyday to ensure you are going for classes or for party? Your statement I don’t agree with that citizens of any country are corrupt, Pakistanis need rulers like angels but in corruption they have no competition. Come to real life please.
but no 1 will understand
I have experienced corrupt teachers giving scholarships to students who never deserved it, should govt come down to that level to ensure even such a corruption isn’t done? Does your dad follow you till University to check where are you going?
+1
Govt. do not care whether students are selling their laptops or not, they just know that they are buying VOTES.. and thatz enough for them. Regarding the corruption as mentioned in the blog, that is their right to loot this country..when the entire Nation is sleeping then people of our country deserve more than this.
Govt should hang one student in a Chowk, will be lesson for the rest.
Most of People i know sold their laptop due to poor build quality.
I also sold my haier laptop y11b bcz its useless for me. It screen size and screen quality make me miserable.
I sold this laptop at 30k and bought decent Lenovo laptop which suits my needs.
You violated your legal contract by selling the laptop. Doesn’t matter why you sold it, it was against the contract’s terms to do so.
I know many people who sold their laptop to pay their education fees.Govt isn’t giving any kind of scholarship or financial support to students who are in financial crisis.what they should do with just a laptop?will it give them higher education or they will get jobs by just having PM scheme laptop?
Why did you even accepted that laptop while knowing that it will poor build or will not fulfill your needs?
The answer to this is in his last line in the comment. He wanted Lenovo lol xD
Seriously though, all this money should have been spent on something other than this LAAAAPTOP scheme.
You dont have the right to sold your laptop that you received. You guys should never be given any laptops or any type of scholarships.
*to sell
I agree waqar. Iski SSD 32GB ha, ap isme programs tk theek se ni install kr sakte ho, MS OFfice aur Windows se hi full hojati ha, Visual Studio chalta kam hang zyada hota ha. Video editing shayad hi is pe possible ho. Seedhe rakho to keyboard uper ho jata ha tab k wazan ki waja se. Mujhe ni lagta k ye kisi b hisab se students ki needs fulfil krta ha. Aise feel hota ha jese sirf surfing, ms office ki files edit krne aur videos dekhne k liye laptop banaya gaya ha.
To bhai, laptop k liye apply hi na karo. Taa k quality behter bnai jae. Wase govt. ko bhi pata hai k haier dia jae ya Macbook. Bachon ne dekhni “VIDEOS” hi hain. Is lye 32 GB boht hai. ;)
You should have given it away to some needy student who doesn’t have these “Nakhray”. There is a saying, one mans trash is another’s treasure. Furthermore, it was govt. property (or in other words, tax payers money) entrusted to you without the right to sell it. Your intention may be good, but it does not mean your actions are justified.
Waha bara kam kia hai hain?
Lenovo is descent? But what you did isn’t.
You shouldn’t have got this at first place.
World-famous biologist James Watson said he is selling the Nobel Prize medal he won in 1962 for discovering the structure of DNA because he has been ostracised and needs the money.
–
Criticize students and political use of the policy. Policy is something good for the student. Only 20-30% would have been in this.
Plot twist: author also used PM scheme laptop to write this story.
Haha
Another twist : He bought it on OLX ?
I wonder if same money could be used for improving the education system in the country, we have plenty of schools without boundary walls, roof and other necessary items.
Yes. And these initiatives can also earn votes.
Even the author of this article is corrupt himself , He hesitates to discuss the benefits of this scheme , I have seen many students learning educational stuff using these free laptops otherwise they wouldn’t even think to buy laptops with price range 40-50K
He is corrupt or not, its not an issue if the whole system is corrupt then its a big issue. This scheme is beneficial for some students as they utilize laptops in positive ways but giving laptops wont resolve the loopholes in education system. Isnt it better to use same money for improving the overall structure so that our country fellows get the most out of it?
And what if the government gives the student a scholarship? The student can then buy a laptop for 15k-20k and do the same stuff plus save lots more on fees.
Students doing positive or negative things is not the point. The point is that a more practical solution should be implemented which will help all students in getting better instead of gifting them laptops which they aren’t even legally allowed to sell.
Absolutely. And this will also earn them votes. But dont know why they are giving laptops :/
Even if the author of the Article is the most corrupt person of the planet, he is not looting money from your home or the national exchequer of Pakistan, is he?
PM’s Laptop Scheme is a mess as every single penny lost in corruption is from the national exchequer, that belongs to the people of Pakistan. The point is, should the government give an educational incentive instead of PM’s Laptop scheme that is to politically promote themselves and has not be actually beneficial to the students. Who cares if 5 out of 10 or 8 out of 10 actually benefits it for themselves, when if the government tried to fund their higher education, a 100% of the pupils would’ve benefitted for it. Yes, a lot less show offing, but PM claims it’s for the students so who needs show offing anyway?
The benefits of laptops are very minimal but if they spend the same budget to improve education infrastructure then benefits will be maximum and for everyone no matter what GPA or grade they got.
Most of the comments in my reply are from Pakistan Takreek Insaf members… Propakistani never have courage to write about scholarships given by PMLN during last 5 years … I know he never will because he just want traffic on site and earn some good bucks from adsense by criticizing every single project of Government ..
corruption starts from bottom!
Go to OLX and Check this link: https://www.olx.com.pk/all-results/q-pm-laptop/
Not a single person is selling PM Laptop from Karachi City.
P.S: Karachi walon ko Laptop he nahi mila, Prejudice Nawaz Govt.
Oh… Isska Matlab Jinhon Ne Ads Post Ki Hui Hain Puri City Main Se Sirf Unko Hi Laptops Mily Hain :D Aur Kisi Ko Nahi :3
“By getting these laptops, they are depriving someone who actually needs them”
It’s a laptop, not electricity, water or gas.
The laptops are limited. And are meant for those who really need them and can’t buy them. These are not for selling. When quota gets used up by those students who sell the laptops, the deserving students dont get them because there’s nothing left.
First of all there is no way to decide who ‘really needs them’ other than the grades and GPA. The deserving students that you speak of are those who study, work hard and get good grades.
And for that reason offering scholarships would be a much better step.
Laptop is not something you need but good education is in fact a need of the country and the people.
The govt said that the scheme is for those who cannot afford laptops. Thats why you have to apply to get one and you cant sell it. Then those students who can afford one applying for a laptop is wrong and they are indeed hoarding on someone else’s quota.
If the govt wanted they could have also set up a method to identify the needy students.
What If they setup high standard computer labs for students in every UC or atleast 5-10 labs in every city consisting of 1000s of high quality computer systems? Don’t you think it will equally benefit all students without any need to identify needy or higher grades or any other discrimination?
Everyone can use the computers for educational purpose, no one can sell them. Laptop charging issues due to loadshedding will get solved. It will provide various employment opportunities Plus it will fulfill the purpose of govt. “vote earning”.
The real problem is not corruption, vote earning or anything the problem is “DIMAGH HI NAHI HAI IN K PAS”.
So by that logic you don’t need a laptop? Makes sense
Uh, future CS student here.
Need e’m .
I rest my case. ☺
I have a CM laptop. My younger brother has one. And we use it mainly for educational purposes. Maybe we are an exception to the general masses. However, I am grateful to CM Sahib for these laptops we have with us right now.
Right, govt should raise education standards, and if they want to get praised they create jobs, create new departments where newly graduates can get jobs where they can learn and work, like earlier NIP which was a good initiate but without proper management, check and balance.
New departments, controlled by private organizations can raise standard and they can generate their revenue if monitored properly.
Mian walon nay naujawano ko porn dekhney k liye gift kar diye hain laptops k log porn dekhney main busy rahien gey aur na koi corruption ka shor hoga na 35 puncture ka waweela hoga. Is liye tou kehtey hain “Mian de naaray wajnay ji wajnay nay”…… Shairrrrrrrrr…….
everybody is corrupt in this country. We always blame others.
The youth of this nation is a disgrace to itself. #Parasites.
Rubbish column.. Propakistani is getting worse and worse day by day by their unauthentic news and columns..
Were you born with buttons instead of eyes?
Alhamdolillah! I have my eyes .. Not your Buttons.. Everybody have a right to express… so better to keep these kind of replies to yourself..
Very funny…
If you indeed have eyes instead of buttons take a look at the column, the writer attached evidence and everything written is proven.
And if everyone has a right to express how can you say rubbish column. Let the writer express.
If you think it’s rubbish then prove the writer is wrong through evidence.
propak may gain more mainstream clicks by such rubbish click baits but will surely lose some of its core audience, but that’s for propak to decide which way they want to go and earn money. As for proofs, open your buttons, writer has mentioned news stories and we know how many of them turn out to be true. even auditor’s report is just procedural, we all know market price of laptop with such specs and kind of after sale service govt was offering and that is not 20k
OK you dont believe news stories, but you should believe the govt’s own statements.Can you deny that students aren’t selling the laptops and there was zero corruption in this?
The auditor’s report isn’t a joke. More often that not, such officials are kicked out of office when they dont agree with the govt.
Need more proof? Three SGPL CEOs were changed because they didn’t approve the LNG rates from Qatar in less than two months. Ask the former CEOs they’ll confirm. I personally know of this.
Yaar hum CA students ka kia qsur, sb ko mil rahe hein, nhi mil rahe to baichaary CA students ko… We want justice…
Laptop scheme is indeed a stupid one, but I am unable to understand how it can become a national embarrassment? Even if it has achieved 10% success, then it served the purpose well.
I hate these click bait titles, this is the real embarrassment.
Based on my experience abroad, the more practical way has been to setup Public Libraries and labs and equip them with Computers and free filtered Internet access. It will be beneficial to not only students but general public as well. Even if we assume that some users will abuse, still vast majority of users will benefit, and total cost will come down.
pehlay ap mulk ki gurbat corruption ko end kernay ka socho takay economy jab powerfull hogi toh har koi PC afford ker sagay ga or phir awareness, lekin nahi. nawaz govt ne shceme shuru kernay se pehle yeh neeyat ki hogi ke laptop jab takseem hongay toh vote bhe milainge…. backfire
Students need a better education system, scholarships and jobs. These laptops are have cheap build quality and they deserved to be sale.
At least they are giving you something..
I agree up to some extent with author, there is a whole list of corruption through this scheme. But there are certain positive points of this scheme as well, Most of the students in government universities belong to middle or lower class families. it is difficult for them to pay fee on time and buying a laptop is a dream for them, and this PM scheme provide them their own laptop. What else they want?
We should see the both faces of picture.
If I suppose, lets say 100,000 laptops were gifted to students (in a single year), out of 100,000 laptops how many you see on OLX or in Hafeez center?
may be 200, may be 300 or may 1000. so what is the percentage of sold out laptops: less than 1%.
So can I say that in new generation, there are atleast 99% people who are not corrupt. So this is a positive point and absolutely showing that views of the author is biased.
I am not saying that “selling laptop is legitimate or that 1 % people are not corrupt”, but I want to convince reader that still 99% are not corrupt. And this is the plus point that even their is no charge against this crime and people have no issue in selling their laptops, still they prefer to keep it for their study or to fulfill the oath they taken by signing the agreement. This shows that, our new generation is sensible and atleast 99% of them are following law. Rest, i want to add that corruption done by contractor or government body is always shameful and the fact provided by the author about favour to contractor and unknown taxes and extra duties shows that performance of Laptop distribution team is not justifiable and some authority should ask them about this.
Agree, students are benefiting a lot from this scheme
Digital divide is being addressed by providing laptops to able students
I met many such students and they are happy that Govt has acknowledged their abilities and empowered / rewarded them. Achievers are being rewarded and non-deceivers are weeping!
Good to see you positive point of view.
But the thing is, the laptops from the 100,000 quota of the third scheme are still being distributed. If there are 100 ads on OLX, you have to keep in mind that these ads get deactivated after a week or two.
Plus, offline sales are several times more than online ones. Hafeez centre, Dubai Plaza are filled with these laptops. So even if the percentage is 40 or 50% of the 50k, 60k laptops already distributed, it shows that our youngsters dont care about the law anymore.
wont it be better if they were offered full scholarship and they could buy their own laptop for 15k, 20k?
One thing we should consider , the policy of not selling laptop and binding student is wrong, this policy is itself promoting corruption, I think government changed this policy and add the opportunity of laptop as well as cash option. So the person who is need of money for studies will automatically go for cash option and the person who really want a complementary gift against his CGPA will go for laptop device. This in return will eliminate chances of illegal selling of laptops in market. In addition to this bounding of not selling device should be only for a limited number of years, i.e. if a Masters student get this laptop as a reward and after 2 years his or her master is completed so he will be allowed to sell this device as the sole purpose was completed with the acquisition of degree.
true
Those laptops were really useless ones. It was stupidity of the government to introduce such a scheme. Anyway they made their commission and parked dollars abroad in their investments spanning from Dubai , London to New York.
This PM Laptop Scheme project was based on corruption, favouritism and for personal benefits. The HEC platform was used but behind the screen, there were many corrupt politicians and family members of our PM. I can confidently said this as I was the participant/witness of this bidding process in 2014. The Company, who got this contract was Home Appliances Company and with mutual understanding, they had given these laptop at the cost of 46k (actual cost was not more than 20K). Also the condition to local assembling was never fulfilled (as formality low profile assembling plant was established after 2 years) and all the Laptop brought from China. The technology used in these laptops was U-Technology, which means, there will be no further up gradation possible in these machines. It also means, after six months to one year, when technology change, these 500K Laptops will become garbage. What a big loss to our valuable revenue. In One Billion Rupees, Pakistan can establish their own Laptop Assembling Factory with Licence Production. Just think and raise your voice against this mega corruption. When the intention is false, the result will be as expected.
She should immediately return this laptop for a needy student, don’t keep the burden. If she didn’t get scholarship it is due to corrupt teachers and university management 100% of times. I myself have faced the same.
I would definitely agree with you Ali.
@Gemini – You should return the laptop immediately. Do you realize because of you there are another 2 deserving students who might have really needed those laptops for themselves? No you didn’t care and took them and now claim it’s a burden.
Okay, here goes, I’ve been using my Laptop, that old Dell version Laptop since 2012 or something. I was doing my MPhil back then. And year 2017 has come now. I have tons of work on it. I have replaced the battery twice. My student ripped me off once :( sadly, but my friend saved me money on my next battery.
You have no idea how grateful I’m for the Laptop that I got. I have made my research papers and assignments on it. I have applied for jobs on it. And I have countless students using this same laptop. I have been teaching in a college for 2.5 years, and I have used it to do everything.
I know it sounds crappy when we sale things gifted to us like that, but I’m pretty sure every country would do the same.
If you use it like me, don’t criticize, help and improve Pakistan and use the Laptop as crazily as me. I really buy a new a good Laptop, but until that time, I’ll use the oldest Laptop that scheme offered. And thank you to whoever gave me the Laptop, I got it for being in MPhil in PU.
I also do not care if somebody sells it. Desperation, lack of resources, sometimes too many functional errors, and things like that can cause such a reaction.
Such schemes are basically waste of money, window dressing schemes, politically motivated to catch the sympathy of younger generation and make easy money. There is always lot of corruption at government level. In fact, government should use their energies to improve educational environment and quality of education at schools & colleges where children from our under privileged class opts to study.Every schools be provided with computers and other latest facilities so that children should get training of modern technology in their primary level. School & Collage fees got to be subsidized so that students could complete their studies with peace of mind without burden on their parents. However, all what government is doing is Topi Drama.