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ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was informed on Monday that about two million Pakistanis travelled abroad over the past three years for employment.
Answering a question in the lower house of parliament, Parliamentary Secretary for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Shafqat Hayat Baloch said that 953,945 people had moved to Saudi Arabia, 112,670 to Oman, 845,000 to UAE, about 23,000 to Bahrain, 45,000 to Malaysia and 277,108 to Qatar in the same period.
He said that National Migration Policy had been drafted in 2008 but it could not be finalised because of devolution of the then Ministry of Labour and Manpower under the 18th Amendment.
In reply to a question raised by Dr Shazia Sobia, he said that about 3.417m Pakistani workers had registered themselves for overseas employment over the past five years.
He said that the ministry concerned was making its best efforts to increase export of manpower to different countries and the country had signed MoUs with Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE for the purpose.
Federal Minister for Commerce Dastgir Khan said that the business community would be provided opportunity to participate in more than a dozen exhibitions being organised in various African countries.
Answering a question of MNA Sajida Begum, he said that the ministry of commerce had prepared a calendar of international exhibitions for 2015-16 and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) had evolved a strategy for participation of Pakistani businessmen in these exhibitions.
He said that some 221 companies had participated in a recent exhibition.
The minister said that the government was making efforts to make the system of allocation of stalls in the exhibitions more transparent and it was also encouraging women participation in such events.
He said that TDAP had participated in 59 exhibitions in 2014-15.
He said 14 exhibitions would take place this year in African countries including Morocco, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2016
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Jan 19, 2016 06:30am
Add to it nonregistered like me who moved to canada on study . I believe people in north america or europe are not counted as there isnt way to track those (i believe)
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Jan 19, 2016 06:32am
While exporting manpower is a good and earning foreign exchange in return even better... However, in formulating future policies for manpower government should be mindful of brain drain that occurs as a result and which is not good for the country...
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Jan 19, 2016 06:42am
First, it was Zardari who clean up the national exchequer and now it is Nawaz's turn. In the mean time, people have to make a living and have to travel wherever the work is.
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Jan 19, 2016 06:43am
Pakistan also needs to works on the long term planning of creating job so people can stay home than going overseas...
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Jan 19, 2016 06:49am
its a shame that brain drain is touted as manpower export. In fact efforts must be made to utilise overseas Pakistanis for betterment within Pakistan.
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Jan 19, 2016 07:11am
More and more Pakistani should go abroad for earning their livelihood. This will earn precious foreign exchange as well as goodwill.
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Jan 19, 2016 07:26am
These figures are suspicious.
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Jan 19, 2016 07:37am
Foreign remittance has contributed a major chunk to GDP of Pakistan. Rather than looking at this figure as alarming, it should be viewed as a source of income. At the same time, efforts should be made to bring back these people to Pakistan and use the experience they gained over the years to benefit and train local population. I am myself working in Malaysia for the past 4 years and I must say I have learnt a lot here. I would love to go back to Pakistan and share my knowledge and experience with others and benefit my country.
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Jan 19, 2016 07:55am
We as Pakistan are no match in figures to how much manpower India is exporting to the middle east region. Focus should be on making the process of migration of such people easier so they leave the country well prepared, well supported by the Government.
Right now! Its a pathetic situation at Pakistan Consulate in Dubai. Once you enter the building you get a sick feeling of how backward the layout of the offices is! The toilets are in pathetic situation. Reminds you of a street toilet in Pakistan. What a shame.
Education on manners should be given to everyone travelling outside of Pakistan.
What an excellent country and how much its people suffer!
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Jan 19, 2016 08:04am
Why Govt. has failed to convince Kuwait to open its doors for Pakistanis? Secondly Saudi Arabia has welcomed more Pakistanis. Thanks for that......but where is Iran whom we are very conscious.
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Jan 19, 2016 08:17am
Brain drain is rising exponentially in Pakistan and many people are running to Australia, Canada, UK, and US. People who go to such countries never come back and Pakistan looses its skilled man power particularly doctors, Managers, CA, CFA, Engineers, Middle class families etc simply because they no longer feel safe or are unable to grow in their field due to limitations imposed by the government. These figures looks suspicious and skewed. government must compile data which shows how many people left the country and never returned back and latter use this data to determine the causes of people leaving the country. The sad part is that even politicians dont stay in Pakistan... In another decade or so Pakistan may loose majority of its skilled labour to other countries...
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Jan 19, 2016 08:17am
Blame on the governmet who are not able to provide jobs locally, I bat most of them were hired in middle esat to do blue collar jobs, becuse Arab don't want to do dirty and hard work.
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Jan 19, 2016 08:56am
This is called brain drain :(
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Jan 19, 2016 08:59am
It is all unbelievable.If 2 million Pakistanis can be sent abroad for jobs in last three years then since 1974 when Bhutto eased the passport restrictions and oil boom atleast 30 million must have migrated from Pakistan.
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Jan 19, 2016 09:10am
They should come back. We will be richest country in the world after economic corridor.
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Jan 19, 2016 09:16am
India has started strictly regulating its labour force going to Gulf countries to safe guard the interests of citizens. Without transparancy in employment, Indians can not go there like they used to go few years back. Unscropulous contractors are clearly telling that they will fill this gap by people from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Golden chance for Pakistan to export more labour force to these countries.
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Jan 19, 2016 09:17am
While everybody in the world is trying to export products, we are exporting the hands who made products.
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Jan 19, 2016 09:25am
pakistan in next 15 years will be a different place all togather if and only if it stays peaceful.
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Jan 19, 2016 09:28am
and that's only to 6 countries. What about other countries and what about those who have migrated? This highlights the status of unemployment, low economic growth and security fear.
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Jan 19, 2016 09:40am
It is a matter of utter shame that rather than creating merit based employment opportunities in the country, we should be taking pride in quoting figures in millions of Pakistanis who have gone abroad for work. If these are our priorities, God save the country.
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Jan 19, 2016 09:44am
They should rename this ministry to "ministry for encouraging brain drain"!!!
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Jan 19, 2016 10:37am
if there is a slightest chance the whole country will leave...Are we really patriots...folks. Real patriotism is a willingness to challenge the government when it's wrong....
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Jan 19, 2016 10:44am
I have a mixed feeling on this. It is good to see more Pakistanis overseas - but at the same time it is sad these people can not find anything to do in Pakistan which can contribute to her progress.
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Jan 19, 2016 10:55am
@loyal Citizen
it is not counted as brain drain as these are mostly blue collar workers.
It is better to export them as they are unemployable locally
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Jan 19, 2016 10:59am
My question is: what is the role government is playing to improve the numbers. Being an expat in UAE, i know for sure that there is zero effort in this regard. My previous bosses in KSA liked to go hunting for talent in Reliance industries etc, because they got support from Indian govt, embassies and the likes. For us, our embassies are sleeping, no rapport building, no say on anything, not instilling the right identity for us as a nation. Wazeer-e-ifraadi quwwat, how many meetings did he do, how many opportunities was he able to grab using formal/informal channels. Lets start asking these questions, rather than sharing the useless statistics!
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Jan 19, 2016 11:20am
Who will work for country's progress?
And its not a good sign for our youth development.
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Jan 19, 2016 11:29am
Brain Drain! That is what comes in mind on the first place. But come on ours is a country of 20 carore.... we have so much of brain.... Even if 10 carore leave Pakistan we will still be having a big pool of brain.
Some people leave our precious country because they are not aloud to use their 'PRECIOUS BRAINS' in all corrupted culture of bribery, nepotism and what not!
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Jan 19, 2016 11:56am
Its very good if all these people are having white collar jobs. Its very bad if these people went for blue collared jobs.
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Jan 19, 2016 12:19pm
@Asif and we importing that product :p
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Jan 19, 2016 12:33pm
Shame on our politicians! Make Pakistan stronger and encourage people to stay! Not throw them out! This is leading to a weaker economy and country, not stronger!
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Jan 19, 2016 12:34pm
The single most valuable resource a nation has are the people it has.
I regret to see our government has no clue about this fact. Further insult to injury is that their whole strategy to ship people out to get a few bucks.
Whoever is left in the country is robbed of his wealth and forced to work under incompetent and dishonest civil/military elite?
Anyone who dares to challenge the status quo is put behind bars, if not tortured and humiliated.
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Jan 19, 2016 01:24pm
Its a brain drain... All good professionals leaving Pakistan
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Jan 19, 2016 01:33pm
What a shame! Instead of formulating and implementing policies to create employment and business opportunities at home, the government wants to "export" all of us. Already many families have been destroyed intensifying social problems in the country due to men going abroad to earn leaving behind their wives and children separated from them. It seems that the heartless government has no concern to keep families united and zero consideration for well being of the society
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Jan 19, 2016 01:40pm
Your rightful place as a Pakistani is only Pakistan. You can always live for your whole life in some other country but only as an adopted child. I do not understand why we Pakistani's are so ignorant to understand this fact.
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Jan 19, 2016 01:54pm
Rather regret on drainage of the manpower these illiterate politicians feel proud. I feel petty on this nation, where this kind of politicians rule….
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Jan 19, 2016 02:06pm
I am working in Liberia since May 2015.I go home for R&R after three months and while returning to Liberia, i get a very bad treatment from FIA every time.The reason is to get money.
Pakistan has no embassy in Liberia and Liberia has no embassy in Pakistan. India has a huge presence in Liberia in terms of grocery stores, medical stores and building stores. The Indian government has even donated buses for public transport.
Our government only concentrate on Europe, middle east and USA where they face stiff challenges in terms of business. They have not realized as yet that they can do business in poor countries as they don not produce and totally dependent on other countries.
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Jan 19, 2016 03:51pm
excellent ! work hard Pakistanis! atleast you'll be able to lift your selves including your families out of abject poverty
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