ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to offer Pakistani nationality to foreign investors, especially to fetch heavy investments from wealthy Afghans and Chinese.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry through a late-night tweet on Friday confirmed the plan.

The government believes it will fetch billions of dollars of foreign investment by giving Pakistani nationality and proprietary rights to the foreign investors.

“In line with new National Security Policy, through which Pakistan declared geo-economics as core of its national security doctrine, the government has decided to allow permanent residency scheme for foreign nationals, new policy allows foreigners to get permanent resident status in lieu of investment,” the tweet said.

A source privy to this de­­velopment told Dawn that the government wanted to attract heavy investments from the wealthy Afghan nationals who were presently investing in countries such as Iran, Turkey and Malaysia.

They said the government also hoped that US-based Sikh nationals would be happy to make investment in different sectors in Pakistan due to their affection with Sikh religious sites in the country.

Also, Prime Minister Imran Khan in his recent statements hinted that he wanted to attract top Chi­n­ese investors who relocated their industries to other countries in the region. The government also hoped that the rich Arabs rulers, who used to visit Pakistan every year for hunting purpose, would like to have Pakistani citizenship.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2022