Ninety Bangladeshi students have arrived in Pakistan under the second phase of the Pakistan-Bangladesh Knowledge Corridor, with 64 arriving in Islamabad, 17 in Lahore, and 9 in Karachi. The students will pursue higher education through the Allama Muhammad Iqbal Scholarships, the fully funded scholarship programme at the centre of the broader Knowledge Corridor initiative. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan extended a welcome to the newly arrived students and wished them a successful academic journey, continuing a reception process that has accompanied each prior batch of Bangladeshi scholars admitted under the programme.
The Pakistan-Bangladesh Knowledge Corridor was initiated following Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar’s visit to Bangladesh in August 2025, during which he announced 500 scholarships for Bangladeshi students. The first batch, comprising 45 students, arrived in Karachi in February 2026 to begin studies at leading Pakistani universities, with HEC officials noting at the time that more students would follow in subsequent weeks. The second phase of the scholarship programme was formally launched in May 2026 alongside the Pakistan Education Expo 2026 in Dhaka, where representatives from 20 Pakistani universities showcased scholarship and higher education opportunities to prospective applicants across a series of expos held in Dhaka, Barishal, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Chittagong, and Rangpur.
HEC officials have previously described the Knowledge Corridor as aiming to enroll around 250 Bangladeshi students in the batch following the initial cohort, with Project Director of the Allama Muhammad Iqbal Scholarships Programme Jehanzeb Khan detailing admission procedures and academic facilities available to Bangladeshi students during orientation sessions held across Bangladesh earlier this year. By the time HEC Chairman Prof. Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar met with a visiting Bangladeshi academic delegation, 74 Bangladeshi students were already studying across various disciplines at top Pakistani universities, meaning this latest arrival of 90 students represents a substantial expansion of the programme’s total enrolled cohort toward its 500-scholarship target. HEC has described the initiative as part of its broader human resource development work, under which the commission has so far awarded around 300,000 scholarships across various programmes.
The distribution of the newly arrived students across Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi reflects how the Knowledge Corridor has drawn on universities across Pakistan’s three largest cities rather than concentrating placements in a single urban centre. Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Imran Haider, has previously described the initiative as a landmark step toward building enduring academic and institutional linkages between the two countries, a framing officials have repeated at each stage of the programme’s rollout, from the initial expo series through the arrival of successive student batches. With 90 more students now settling into their respective host cities, HEC’s efforts over the coming months will likely focus on continuing to fill the remaining scholarship slots toward the programme’s 500-student target while supporting the newly arrived cohort through their academic transition into Pakistani universities.
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