$db_host = "localhost";
                $db_username = "root";
                $db_pass = "";
                $db_name = "final";

                $con= mysqli_connect("$db_host","$db_username","$db_pass") or die ("could not connect to mysql");

                mysqli_select_db($con, "final") or die ("no database");

                  $pagination_sql = "SELECT * FROM `ongoing` WHERE approved='approve'";
                  $run_pagination = mysqli_query($con, $pagination_sql);

                  $count = mysqli_num_rows($run_pagination);

                  $total_pages = ceil($count/$per_page);

                    echo "<ul class='pagination'>";
                    echo "<li class='page-item'><a class='page-link' href='ongoing.php?page=".($page-1)."' class='button'>
                            <span aria-hidden='true'>&laquo;</span>
                            <span class='sr-only'>Previous</span>
                          </a></li>";

                  for($i=1;$i<=$total_pages;$i++){

                    echo'<li><a class="page-link" href="ongoing.php?page='.$i.'">'.$i.'</a></li>';

                  };

                    echo "<li class='page-item'><a class='page-link' href='ongoing.php?page=".($page+1)."' class='button'>
                            <span aria-hidden='true'>&raquo;</span>
                            <span class='sr-only'>Next</span>
                          </a></li>";
                    echo "</ul>";
            ?>

$per_page = 10;
if(isset($_GET['page'])){
$page = $_GET['page'];
}else{
  $page= 1;
}
$start_from = ($page-1) * $per_page;