ISLAMABAD: More than half of the 888,000 Pakistanis who travelled abroad for work in the last two years – 447,000 in total – went to the United Arab Emirates, the Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment revealed during a Senate committee meeting on Thursday.

The Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development met at Parliament House.

The committee was informed that 194,000 Pakistanis travelled to Saudi Arabia for work, and 59,508 went to Oman.

A bureau representative said that in the case of death or an accident that leads to permanent disability, the victim or the victim’s family is paid compensation.

He said the compensation is paid through the insurance company. A total of Rs6.3 billion have been paid in such cases since 1882, he added.

The senators were told that insurance coverage provides up to Rs1 million against a one time premium of Rs2,500 for five years.

The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis provides Rs300,000 in case of disability and Rs400,000 in case of death. Standard operating procedures have been developed to ensure transparency in financial transactions, and there is no pendency of payments, the committee was informed.

The government is also working on signing a memorandum of understanding with Japan to send Pakistani labour there, as there is a demand for manpower in Japan. Efforts are also being made to send Pakistanis to Romania.

“We have uploaded the status of employment on the ministry’s website and a number of fake websites that were offering jobs abroad have been blocked,” the representative said.

During a briefing on the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) the committee was told that the foundation has begun making a profit.

“Until 2017-18, OPF was in loss of Rs600m. However, in the year 2018-19, we generated a profit of Rs110m. It is expected that during the current year the profit will be increased to Rs250m,” the OPF managing director said.

He said the foundation generated Rs7.1m in revenue last year by selling 11 vehicles, which reduced fuel and vehicle repair expenses as well.

OPF was established under the 1979 Emigration Ordinance. It was registered as a not-for-profit company under the Companies Act 1913 (now section 42 of the Companies Act 2017).

It is a public sector company to be governed under the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan’s Public Sector Companies (Corporate Governance) Rules 2013. The board of governors is its supreme body and all OPF operations are managed under overall control of the board and policy directions from the government.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2019