For an undergraduate in Punjab watching tuition fees climb each semester, the Chief Minister’s Honhaar Scholarship is one of the few schemes that can change the arithmetic of a whole degree. Phase IV is the current round, run by the Punjab Higher Education Department with the Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC), and applications are made online only. The date that matters most is the last one: 9 November 2026. If you are eligible, there is no reason to leave this to the final evening, when portals slow down and a single missing document becomes a missed year.
What Honhaar Phase IV covers — and what it does not say it covers
Reports of the Phase IV notice, including university notices from institutions such as IUB and FJWU, describe the award as 100% of tuition fees for the length of the degree — four years for a four-year programme and five years for a five-year programme, subject to the programme’s continuing terms. That is the headline, and it is a large one. What the reported material does not say is that it pays hostel or living costs, so do not budget on that basis. If your university notice or the portal itself states something different for your programme, that version wins.
Who can apply
Three tests have to be passed together. Missing any one of them is enough to stop an application, however strong the other two are:
- Punjab domicile. You must hold a domicile of a district in Punjab. Students domiciled elsewhere are not covered by this Punjab scheme, however good their marks.
- A selected discipline at a selected institution. Phase IV is not open to every programme at every university. Reported notices put the number of selected disciplines at 70, and both your discipline and your institution must appear on the portal’s lists. Enrolment alone is not enough — check the lists inside the application system before you spend time on the form.
- Marks and income limits for your category. The reported thresholds are set out below, and they differ by stage and by type of institution.
No age limit is stated in the reported eligibility information, and the scheme is open to male and female students on merit.
Marks required, by stage
| Applicant stage | Reported minimum |
|---|---|
| New students, Fall 2026 first semester — Intermediate (science) | 70% |
| New students, Fall 2026 first semester — Intermediate (arts) | 65% |
| Continuing students, 3rd semester onwards — Spring 2026 (science) | 70% |
| Continuing students, 3rd semester onwards — Spring 2026 (social sciences / arts) | 65% |
University notices describe the two routes slightly differently — new Fall 2026 students assessed on Matric plus Intermediate marks, and continuing students assessed on their latest results or CGPA — so read your own university’s notice alongside the portal. First-year MBBS and BDS students for 2026 are included in reported notices, again subject to the selected institution and discipline. If your marks sit exactly on a boundary, confirm how your institution rounds or treats them before submitting.
Income limits and the affidavit
The reported family income limits are:
- Below Rs. 350,000 per month for public-sector higher education institutions.
- Below Rs. 500,000 per month for selected federal and private partner institutions.
Note the word “below” — these are ceilings, not targets. You will need an income affidavit on e-stamp paper, with a sample available on the portal according to reported guides. Get this made early: stamp paper, attestation and a mistake in a parent’s name or income figure are exactly the delays that push an application past a deadline.
Documents to have ready
- CNIC or B-Form
- Matric and Intermediate marksheets / result cards
- A recent photograph
- Punjab domicile certificate
- Income affidavit on e-stamp paper
- Current enrolment proof and latest marksheets for continuing students
Scan everything clearly before you start. Blurred uploads are a common, avoidable reason for verification problems.
How to apply online, step by step
- Open the official Honhaar portal. The address given in university notices and PHEC material is honhaarscholarship.punjabhec.gov.pk — type it yourself rather than following a link from a social media post, and check you are on the genuine PHEC portal before entering personal details.
- Register as a new applicant and complete the personal, educational and socio-economic sections.
- Confirm that your institution, discipline and semester appear as eligible in the system.
- Upload the documents listed above in the formats and sizes the form shows.
- Review every field — CNIC number, university name, programme, marks and income figures — against your documents.
- Submit. Saving a form is not submitting it. A final submission generates a trackable application ID; keep it safe.
After submission, reported guides describe status tracking through a portal login with your CNIC and password, showing stages such as document verification, institute endorsement and merit-list standing. If your status stalls at one stage, your first call should be to your institution’s focal person, not to a random helpline number found online. No hard copy is required — the process is online only.
Three mistakes that cost students this scholarship
- Assuming enrolment equals eligibility. If your discipline or institution is not on the selected lists, the rest of the form does not help.
- Leaving the affidavit to the last day. It is the one document you cannot generate from a result card in five minutes.
- Trusting a forwarded deadline. Dates in WhatsApp groups and old blog posts get recycled. The portal and your university’s current notice are the only dates that count, and if PHEC extends the deadline, the portal will show it first.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an application fee?
No fee is mentioned in the reported Phase IV material. Apply only on the PHEC portal, and treat any person or page asking for payment to “secure” a Honhaar place as a fraud risk. Our guide to spotting fake government scheme websites explains the warning signs.
Can I apply if I already hold another scholarship?
Check the portal’s rules on holding another award before you accept anything. Schemes differ on this, and accepting two awards that cannot be combined can cost you both.
I am in a later semester than the third. Can I still apply?
Reported notices cover students from the 3rd semester onwards on their Spring 2026 results, provided programme and institution are listed. Confirm your exact semester’s position in the portal — do not assume a later semester is automatically included or excluded.
How does Honhaar differ from PEEF?
They are different bodies with different routes. PEEF runs its own schemes, including the institution-based route covered in our PEEF scholarship eligibility guide, while Honhaar is a PHEC portal application. If you qualify for both, read each scheme’s rules separately.
Phase IV will not wait for a perfect application — it will reward a complete, accurate one submitted in good time. Check your discipline and institution on the portal today, get the affidavit done this week, and submit well before 9 November 2026. This site is an independent guide, not PHEC, so always confirm the final rules on the official portal before you submit.