ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday strongly deplored the so-called “Public Notice” issued by the University Grants Commission of India and the All India Council for Technical Education which advised its students against travelling to Pakistan for the purpose of seeking higher education.
The statement from the Foreign Office comes in the wake of notice, warning that “Indian nationals or overseas Indian citizens who intended to take admissions in any Pakistani educational institute or degree programme would not be eligible for employment or higher education in India.”
However, it added that migrants and their children who had received higher education in Pakistan would be eligible for seeking Indian employment, provided they were granted citizenship and obtained security clearance.
In a statement, FO Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said that the tone of the ‘Public Notice’ was not only threatening towards the students, but it also sought tyrannical authoritarianism.
“It is regrettable that driven by its incurable obsession with Pakistan, India is unabashedly coercing the students in order to deter them from pursuing quality education of their choice,” the spokesman added.
Asim Iftikhar added that this has further exposed the BJP-RSS combined deep-seated ideological animus and chronic hostility towards Pakistan.
“It is deplorable that as part of its mission ‘Hindu Rashtra’, the Indian government has resorted to such moves in order to stoke hyper-nationalism in the country,” Iftikhar said, adding: “We have sought clarification from the Indian government with reference to the Public Notice,” he added.
The FO spokesperson concluded by saying that Pakistan reserved the right to take appropriate measures in response to this openly discriminatory and inexplicable action by India.
